^3SV CF PRI^jv 
 
 Logical se*^ 
 
 BS1515 ,P39 1862 
 Payne Smith, R. (Robert), 1818-1895. 
 Authenticity and messianic interpretation 
 ihs prophecies of Isaiah : vindicated in a ■• 
 
THE AUTHENTICITY AND MESSIANIC 
 INTERPRETATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 / 
 
 PEOPHECIES OF ISAIAH 
 
 VINDICATED IN A COURSE OE SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EEV. E. PAYNE *SMITH, M.A., 
 
 SUB - LIBRARIAN OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, AND SELECT PREACHER. 
 
 JOHN HENRY and JAMES PARKER. 
 1862. 
 
$)rinttb bi> |ttc,<.sr.<s. Purhcr, Cormiuuhct, (IVvforb. 
 
* V 
 
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 * 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 rpHE following course of Sermons originated in my 
 -*- having been appointed to preach the annual dis- 
 course upon the Jewish Interpretation of Prophecy 
 in 1858 ; and shortly afterwards as Select Preacher 
 I continued the subject, only with a wider applica- 
 tion, so as to include German as well as Jewish 
 neology. In preparing them for the press the first 
 sermon necessarily has been recast, the matter in the 
 opening part now forming the Introduction, while to 
 complete the subject I have appended Sermon n., 
 which was never delivered. I have also restored 
 several passages omitted for fear of too great length, 
 and for the sake of clearness have put straight- 
 forward names instead of the periphrases usual in 
 the pulpit. Any one acquainted with German litera- 
 ture will see how greatly I am indebted to Drechsler, 
 Havernick, Hengstenberg, Eeinke, Eiickert, Stier, 
 and others, not to mention the chief neologian com- 
 mentators, Gesenius, Hitzig, and Knobel, and names 
 so well known to every student of Hebrew as Ewald 
 and E. Meier. I have also read with great advan- 
 tage Dr. Alexander's "Commentary," and the trans- 
 lation and learned notes of Dr. Henderson. 
 
 Oxford, 
 January, 1862. 
 
 a2 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TN estimating the strength of the evidence offered 
 by prophecy to the mission of our Lord, it is ne- 
 cessary to remember that it is cumulative. Its force 
 does not depend upon any single passage, however 
 clear and distinct, but upon the combined effect of 
 numerous passages, spoken by a multitude of writers, 
 at great intervals of time and under very different 
 circumstances, yet all uniting in one great and har- 
 monious whole. Like the doctrines of the New Tes- 
 tament, its manner is entirely unartificial : it is given 
 here a line and there a line, without method or ar- 
 rangement; there is no appearance of plan, or fore- 
 thought, or contrivance ; and yet there is no contra- 
 diction, no irreconcileable divergency of statements, 
 no portions which undeniably are at variance with 
 the rest. To many, perhaps, used to read their Bible 
 as a whole, this fact may not seem remarkable ; nor 
 is it remarkable if the Bible be the Word of God, and 
 if His Holy Spirit watched over the gradual forma- 
 tion of that book which was to be the revelation of 
 God's will to mankind; but upon any other suppo- 
 sition it is incapable of explanation. If the Bible be 
 an ordinary book, the result of unaided human reason, 
 and to be classed with the Yedas, the Avesta, and the 
 Koran, it is an inexplicable fact that, made up as it is 
 of writings which extend over a period of fifteen hun- 
 
Ti INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dred years, there should be throughout an unmis- 
 takeable convergency towards one main conclusion. 
 It is the character of the religions which men invent, 
 that they begin purely and end in corruption. They 
 start with the earnest endeavour to reform the wrong 
 doings of their times, but no sooner has success at- 
 tended them, than the selfish and unscrupulous use 
 them as means of ministering to their own evil de- 
 signs. On the contrary, in the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures it is always a growing light ; a progress in 
 knowledge, in morality, in holiness, and a gradual 
 preparation for what we believe to be God's best and 
 final revelation to mankind. No change of circum- 
 stances makes them deviate from their settled course. 
 It matters nothing whether the Israelites be nomads 
 in the desert, or the busy citizens of Solomon's peace- 
 ful empire; the anarchy of the judges, the almost 
 total conquest of the nation by the Philistines, the 
 wars of David, the luxurious repose of his successor, 
 the subsequent gradual declension of the realm, the 
 apostacy of its monarchs, the debasement of the people, 
 their exile and restoration, — all these things and the 
 like fail in corrupting the morality or lowering the 
 spiritual insight of this long series of Jewish writers. 
 But with all this they had no conscious purpose or 
 knowledge of the final tendencies of their works: 
 each had his own present business, and addressed 
 himself to the immediate wants and needs of his days. 
 Moses was intent upon forming into a nation the 
 nomad hordes, debased by a long subjection, whom ho 
 led out of Egypt ; but the forms of worship which he 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 established all looked forward to and typified that 
 future sacrifice by which an atonement was made for 
 the sins of the world, and from time to time he re- 
 cords promises and gives utterance to prophecies which 
 mark out the whole outline of the Messiah's office. 
 In time these hordes become a powerful nation, and 
 the worship celebrated of old in the wilderness in a 
 tent is now offered unto God with all the splendour 
 of a magnificent ritual ; and their two great kings, 
 David and Solomon, write choral odes for the temple 
 service : the one pours forth the troubled griefs of 
 many anxious years of persecution and suffering, and 
 his words pass on beyond his own sorrows, and tell us 
 of the Passion of our Lord ; the other describes a king 
 ruling in the plenitude of power, and as we read we 
 feel that he is speaking of Him unto whom all power 
 in heaven and earth is given, and who has received 
 the Gentiles for His inheritance and the utmost parts 
 of the earth for His possession. But soon the king- 
 dom is divided, and its glories fade away. Each reign 
 sees a deeper degradation settling upon the realm : 
 the national faith is corrupted, general wickedness 
 pre vails, and the Assyrians appear as God's appointed 
 instruments of punishment. In the hour of distress 
 Isaiah is commissioned to warn and rebuke them ; 
 but he has also words of consolation : and these, in- 
 tended for present use, are so overruled that future 
 generations call him the Prophet of the Gospel. The 
 hosts of Sennacherib perish, but the danger is not 
 averted, for the same sins are still persisted in, and 
 therefore the same effects follow ; and another prophet 
 
vm INTRODUCTION. 
 
 arises to admonish them, and words again are spoken 
 accomplished only in the nativity at Nazareth. And 
 again the fortunes of the people change, and centuries 
 follow of a heroic but hopeless struggle, the com- 
 mencement of which was inaugurated by the voice of 
 several prophets. With the changed circumstances of 
 the nation, much of the outward form of prophecy was 
 different ; for in every age prophecy reflected the cur- 
 rent feelings and national fortunes of the times. None, 
 for instance, of the later prophets speak of a king exe- 
 cuting righteousness and judgment ; the royal house 
 sank into obscurity during the exile, nor could the 
 merits of Zerubbabel, though affectionately recorded 
 by his countrymen, win back the throne for the lineage 
 of David : and therefore the prophets of the restora- 
 tion draw their images, not from the kingly majesty 
 which had ceased to exist, but from the priesthood, 
 round which all that was noble in the nation had 
 gathered. And yet, notwithstanding so great a change, 
 no note is struck which jars with the declarations of 
 previous prophets, nor is there a word which does not 
 fitly belong to Him who is our Prophet, Priest, and 
 Xing. 
 
 To many it has seemed as if this character of pro- 
 phecy were a weakness and defect; just as in the 
 New Testament they complain that no exact state- 
 ment of doctrines is given, but only pregnant words 
 dropped here and there, and great principles enun- 
 ciated, not with the pomp of eloquence, but simply 
 and as it were by chance, and as occasion called them 
 forth. They wonder, therefore, that in prophecy no 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1X 
 
 Sibylline books were given to the Jews, claiming from 
 the first to be the declarers of future events ; that no 
 exact and definite narrative was written of Messiah's 
 birth and life, and death and resurrection, but only- 
 words casually let fall, which combine, indeed, into 
 a marvellously complete representation of His coming 
 and attributes, but of which many are capable of some 
 lower application. But so it is ever in this world. The 
 gifts of God are scattered bountifully, but so that man 
 has alwa) r s to gather them and adapt them to his use. 
 God's gifts and man's labour are, for us, inseparable. 
 For the idle and negligent, for the unwilling and per- 
 verse, His goodness is hidden away. As the indolent 
 may starve though God clothe the fields with His 
 bounty, so may the infidel perish for lack of know- 
 ledge though Scripture contain everything necessary 
 for his mental use. Of the manner of God's gifts, 
 however, we are not judges. His thoughts are not as 
 our thoughts ; and probably nothing so clearly shews 
 this as the lurking fancy of men that they could im- 
 prove upon God's work. As regards His moral deal- 
 ings with us, and the manner in which good and evil 
 are ever found in near proximity and strange union 
 in this world, it is in them no uncommon thought, 
 that had the power been confided unto them they 
 would not have made our state so full of difficulties. 
 And similarly in Holy Scripture, when in so many 
 particulars it is different from what we might have 
 expected, instead of remembering that our business is 
 to take the facts of our case as they are, and labour to 
 bring onr lives into conformity with God's laws, they 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 either brood over their difficulties and give way to 
 discontent, or parade them as proofs that God has not 
 dealt wisely and kindly by the works of His hands. 
 
 Viewed, however, in a truer light, this want of 
 method in the prophecies, combined with their real 
 unity, proves that in this, as in all His works, God 
 has done all things well. For, in reading the pro- 
 phecies, if anything could bring conviction to the 
 mind it would be the entire agreement and con- 
 vergence to a single point of so many various decla- 
 rations, made through so long a succession of ages by 
 so many different writers, and under such perpetually 
 varying circumstances of time and place. For, un- 
 methodical as they are, and spoken not for the conscious 
 purpose of revealing future things, but for the present 
 guidance of God's people in the various emergencies 
 which befell them, they possess in themselves a unity 
 of the highest kind. All tend in the same direction, 
 only as they advance they grow more clear, more 
 distinct, more definite; constantly adding to that 
 which went before, but never contradicting it : filling 
 up the outline, but never going beyond it ; com- 
 mencing with the general promise of a deliverer, 
 who should be emphatically the woman's seed, but 
 gradually, as time went on, revealing His nature and 
 His office, the family of which He should spring, the 
 town where He should be born, the time of His 
 advent, the manner of His teaching, the nature of 
 nis doctrines, His rejection by the Jews, 1 1 is passion, 
 His death, His burial, His resurrection, His glory, 
 and the founding of His Church. And what, in 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 answer to this full sum of prophecy, is the fact, par- 
 tially true, that several of these prophecies had also 
 a passing reference to some other event ? That David 
 had also the thought of his own troubles, Solomon 
 of his own glory ? The prophets themselves, pro- 
 bably, did not understand the full purport of their 
 words. They knew of the promise made to their 
 nation, and the coming of the Messiah was a certainty 
 deeply impressed upon their minds ; — for it would be 
 absurd to doubt that in the schools of the prophets 
 they were trained from their youth to the constant 
 study of their holy books, and that each additional 
 declaration of their seers was the subject of deep and 
 earnest meditation. No less St. Peter tells us, where 
 he says, that they did enquire and search diligently 
 into the meaning of that which the Holy Spirit which 
 was in them did signify, especially with reference 
 to the time when Christ should surfer, and the glory 
 that should follow. But though the mission of their 
 nation, and the promises made to it, were ever present 
 in their memories, still it is probable that as each 
 prophet was summoned to his office upon the pressure 
 ever of some present emergency, he was not conscious 
 at the time of the extent to which his words might 
 have a higher application. He felt himself, indeed, 
 borne along by an irresistible influence, and was 
 conscious that what he spake came from God-; and 
 subsequently, as he recalled his words to mind, he 
 must have known that much that he had spoken 
 referred really to the Messiah's advent ; but probably 
 he would altogether have been unable to distinguish 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 between what was temporary and what eternal, or to 
 tell what mysteries of redemption lay concealed under 
 the veil of allusions to contemporaneous events. 
 
 It was with them as with others who were types 
 of Christ. When Isaac went unresisting to the sacri- 
 fice, he did not himself know the mystery which he 
 was shadowing forth. When the ministering priests 
 led the victim to the altar, but few probably saw in 
 the rites of their temple service the indications of 
 better things. But w 7 hen we find the close agree- 
 ment of type and prophecy with the Gospel dispen- 
 sation, when we read the undoubting appeals of our 
 Lord and His Apostles to the prophetic books, and 
 to Moses in the law as testifying of Him, and perceive 
 how full the Old Testament is of passages and things 
 which naturally and of themselves suggest Christ 
 to us, we may well be content to rest our faith upon 
 so broad a foundation, even though it be possible 
 for controversial minds to suggest specious objections 
 against special prophecies in detail. For though the 
 force of individual passages may be weakened, still 
 the great fact remains unaccounted for, that through- 
 out there is a general assent and subservience of the 
 Old Testament to the doctrines of the New. 
 
 For surely, if the hand of God had not been there, 
 so wonderful an agreement could not have been at- 
 tained to ! Among so many authors, with such va- 
 rious purposes before them, and under such vast dif- 
 ferences of outward circumstance and mental develop- 
 ment, there must have occurred, but for the Spirit's 
 presence, irreconcilable contradictions. Some able man 
 
INTRODUCTION. xin 
 
 would have arisen to stamp a new impress upon the 
 national literature. The erratic hand of genius would 
 have snapped the thread of ancient tradition, and 
 founded new schools and modes of thought. Their 
 views of the promised deliverer at one period would 
 have been in direct antagonism with those at an- 
 other. Statements would have been made so totally- 
 opposite that one side or other must have been false. 
 Human passions would have stained the portraiture of 
 Messiah's person, and selfish purposes have debased 
 the representation of His kingdom. Even individual 
 men are often at variance with themselves, and give 
 utterance at different times to views strangely in- 
 consistent with one another. But there is no such 
 variance in the words of prophecy. Like all the 
 works of God, it has its difficulties, to try our faith ; 
 but also, like all His works, in its broad outlines 
 it declares its Almighty author, and proclaims His 
 goodness and His glory. 
 
 Ear different would be its character were it possible 
 to bring forward passages of Holy Writ which took 
 a different and irreconcilable view of the Messiah's 
 office from that contained in the rest of Scripture ; 
 or if there were predictions referring to His first 
 advent plainly unfulfilled ; or worse than this, pre- 
 dictions contrary to what really happened. Did even 
 any prophet describe Messiah's attributes in a dif- 
 ferent spirit from the rest, taking a different view 
 of man's needs, and of God's purposes of mercy; 
 if we had to balance between opposing prophecies, 
 and to weigh counter-statements, and could not em- 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brace them all in one harmonious whole, wherein 
 each finds its natural and proper place; were aught 
 of this the case, then no longer would the evidence 
 of the Old Testament be what it now is, " the more 
 sure word of prophecy," more sure even than the 
 voice which St. Peter heard upon the Mount of 
 Transfiguration, declaring Christ's eternal Sonship. 
 The Jewish Scriptures might still have a value ; 
 they might still be, as many think they merely are, 
 an interesting national literature, of much historical 
 worth, as shewing what preceded Christianity ; but 
 they would no longer offer to our reasons a satis- 
 factory proof of Christianity being a revelation from 
 God, with claims therefore upon our obedience, and 
 authority to declare to us the truths upon which our 
 eternal state depends. 
 
 As it is, the Old Testament gradually prepares for 
 and leads on unto the Christian dispensation ; while 
 without Christianity it becomes itself full of diffi- 
 culties incapable of a satisfactory solution. For, unlike 
 other religions, it does not claim to be final, but ever 
 looks onwards to the coming of something more per- 
 fect. Its central truth is a promise, a hope, an ex- 
 pectation, of which it seeks the fulfilment, and in 
 which it is ever disappointed. It is not till the first 
 chapter of the Gospels that we read the words, "All 
 this was done that it might be fulfilled which was 
 spoken of the Lord by the prophet." Till then, 
 whatever form the records of the Jewish people took, 
 their laws, their histories, their lyric odes, their pro- 
 phecies ; whatever circumstances called their writers 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 forth, equally in the hour of triumph and in the 
 darkness of calamity, it was still to the future that 
 they turned, and all alike in every age were animated 
 with the same firm conviction of the coming of a 
 Saviour. Hope was ever their guiding star, whether 
 it were the first mother bending over her new-born 
 child, and calling him her Cain, the man whom she 
 had gotten to be her lord ; or the dying patriarch, 
 who dwelt in vision upon Judah's glory, destined 
 only then to cease when the Shiloh, the great scion 
 of the race, whose the sceptre really was, should 
 come ; or their legislator, who bade them in his last 
 discourse look for the appearance of another prophet 
 like unto himself : ever, in all cases, it was a promise 
 which was their comfort and their joy, even to the 
 last utterance of prophecy, " The Lord whom ye seek 
 shall suddenly come to His temple." It was a re- 
 ligion of the future, having for the present types 
 only and enigmas, veiled meanings and symbolic acts ; 
 but far away in the dim distance it had its heritage. 
 This heritage Judaism itself never attained to ; the 
 bright pictures of national glory set forth by the 
 prophets it has never seen fulfilled. Plainly it was 
 but a preparatory religion, educating men for a more 
 perfect state of things. In itself it could never ac- 
 complish its mission of blessing all the nations of the 
 earth, for it had in it no completeness, no perfection ; 
 it did but point onwards, and wait for the coming 
 of a better hope. And then would the veil be raised, 
 and the secret lessons and hidden meanings of its 
 rites and ceremonies be disclosed. The words of its 
 
xv i INTRODUCTION. 
 
 prophets would gain their true significance ; their 
 temple worship and solemn sacrifices would be seen 
 in their real meaning as types of the Saviour of man- 
 kind * and what had been before but a local religion 
 and a partial manifestation of God's will, would become 
 the religion of the world, destined in God's time to 
 gather unto it all nations and tongues, and to diffuse 
 everywhere the pure light of Christian truth. 
 
 In every way Judaism carried in its very bosom the 
 marks of its temporary character. For being purely 
 local, it could only exist under certain political cir- 
 cumstances, which nothing but a special providence 
 could maintain. Its enactments all suppose a limited 
 territory, an agricultural population, great equality in 
 social condition, and an absence of intercourse, whether 
 commercial or otherwise, with alien nations : but such 
 a community was sure, sooner or later, to fall under 
 the dominion of the great empires in whose very path- 
 way it was set, or to degenerate into an exhausted 
 and motionless stagnation. There was, indeed, one 
 element of. life in it — one alone — which kept it from 
 sinking into the fixity of type which otherwise must 
 have been the inevitable lot of a people so situated ; 
 and that element was prophecy. But prophecy itself 
 implies two evils, — one of the past, and one of the 
 future : of the past, insufficiency ; of the future, de- 
 struction. As regards the past, the existence of the 
 prophet implies that the amount of truth hitherto 
 given is insufficient ; not incomplete merely, — for all 
 truth given to man must be incomplete, since neces- 
 sarily it must be limited by the powers of the re- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 cipient, — but insufficient. For the office of the prophet 
 is to develope and unfold that which the earlier reve- 
 lation had not declared with sufficient clearness for 
 man's necessities. Thus, for example, the faint indi- 
 cations in the law of the immortality of the soul, and 
 of a future state of rewards and punishments, were 
 gradually developed into the more fixed and definite 
 doctrines of the prophetic books. But such a change 
 in doctrines of such vital importance could not but 
 lead to a dangerous confusion of ideas. What had 
 reference in the law of Moses to temporal sanctions 
 would naturally be interpreted in accordance with the 
 deeper knowledge of the time. Accordingly, we find 
 that the declaration contained in the fourth command- 
 ment, that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the 
 children, — an undeniable fact as regards the general 
 course of His moral government of the world, — was 
 applied by the people to the guilt of sin instead of 
 its temporal consequences : and therefore Ezekiel was 
 commissioned to reveal in God's name a truer and 
 more exact account of the law whereby men will be 
 judged. And as the existence of the prophet — a living 
 authority, that is, who speaks in God's name — im- 
 plied insufficiency in the past, so did it imply de- 
 struction in the future. For such an institution could 
 belong only to a temporary and preparatory religion. 
 When the measure of truth according to man's needs 
 is full, when, in other words, revelation has reached 
 that stage at which God has given whatever is neces- 
 sary for man's salvation, then the living authority, 
 with power to develope and to decree, must pass away. 
 
 b 
 
XV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 For the business of a living infallible authority is not 
 to remove difficulties, but to render the means of sal- 
 vation sufficient. For the removal of difficulties 
 would render impossible the great purpose, as far as 
 we can understand it, of the present state of things, 
 namely, man's probation. Without difficulties our 
 faith could not be tried, and a faith untried, and which 
 therefore had never overcome, would be no faith. 
 Faith by its very nature presupposes difficulties ; for 
 the moral nature of faith — its virtue, so to speak — 
 consists in the very fact that it is associated with an 
 effort of the will, whereby we refuse to allow mere 
 intellectual doubts to interfere with the spiritual wants 
 of the soul. Had we perfect knowledge, we should 
 escape from the necessity of choosing, as we now must 
 choose, between belief and unbelief; but that we have 
 to make this choice, and that in making it we have to 
 face and overcome difficulties, need surprise no one. 
 For it is but another form of a necessity the existence 
 of which we all acknowledge, that, namely, of choos- 
 ing between good and evil. And in most cases the 
 choice resolves itself into the same one effort. Man 
 chooses moral good by choosing religion. To choose 
 a virtuous life, apart from the motives, and influences, 
 and hopes of the Christian covenant, may be the act 
 of a philosopher; but, happily, such persons are of 
 rare occurrence, and to ordinary men it is the truest 
 wisdom to seek first the kingdom of God and His 
 righteousness, in the certain conviction that He will 
 enable His people to live to His glory, and to their 
 own present peace and future happiness. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 It follows, therefore, that the existence of a living 
 infallible authority is possible only under a temporary 
 state of things. As long as the sum of revealed truth 
 is insufficient for the wants of the soul in its state of 
 probation, so long the prophet is needed to explain 
 and unfold from time to time truths as yet but par- 
 tially declared. And with each increase of knowledge 
 there was a corresponding progress in the minds of 
 the better portion of God's people of old, and the need 
 was felt of more truth and greater illumination ; and 
 so fresh stages were reached, and withal there was the 
 more eager and vehement longing for His advent who 
 is the Desire of all nations, and who, as we believe, 
 has given to mankind sufficient knowledge and mo- 
 tives powerful enough to supply all their needs in this 
 present world. Ilis dispensation, therefore, will have 
 no end until the final consummation of all things, nor 
 is the truth which He has revealed capable of increase. 
 It may be better explained and better understood ; 
 its wonderful adaptability to all times and- states, and 
 to the varying progress of the human intellect, may 
 manifest itself more and more clearly; but we can 
 expect no fresh truths, nor can any addition be made 
 to that faith which was once for all delivered unto the 
 saints. There may be a difference in our way of 
 using the gift, but the gift is in itself sufficient, and 
 will remain unchanged. 
 
 These considerations may possibly also serve to 
 enable us to understand the nature of what is termed 
 
 b2 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the double sense of prophecy. We have seen that 
 the mission of the prophet was to unfold and explain 
 the way of God's dealings with mankind, ever adding 
 to the sum and clearness of that which went before, 
 but generally doing so in an unmethodical manner, 
 and seldom, like Ezekicl in the passage referred to 
 above, directly revealing new truths, but content 
 rather with practical exhortations and warnings fitted 
 for the emergency which had summoned him to un- 
 dertake his office. We have further seen that the 
 Jewish dispensation was in its very nature temporary, 
 and a preparation only for a better and final reve- 
 lation. Now such a dispensation must more or less 
 foreshew the nature of that state of things to which 
 it was itself subservient. If the Jewish covenant was 
 intended to prepare for and lead on unto the Chris- 
 tian, its traits and lineaments must in everything es- 
 sential agree with that which was its own perfection. 
 The people of God could not have been educated and 
 fitted by Judaism for Christianity unless there existed 
 a close relation and resemblance between the two. 
 Whatever in the law was for a mere temporary pur- 
 pose would of course perish with the using, but in its 
 main outlines it prefigured the Gospel, and therefore 
 would simply be developed and merged into the more 
 perfect form of the latter, — just as the child, though 
 he puts away all childish things, is really one with, and 
 finds his perfection in, the man. And this is what we 
 mean when we speak of the Jewish as being a type of 
 the Christian Church, — that there is a certain parity 
 and resemblance between the two, arising from their 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 being in their inner essence the one revelation of 
 God's will to man in the several stages of its up- 
 growth. In the Christian Church we have the per- 
 fection of that which previously was in a state of pro- 
 gress, starting with the prediction given to the woman 
 and culminating in the teaching of Isaiah, but still 
 incomplete and a promise only until Messiah came. 
 Now whatever belonged to the Jewish Church merely 
 in its state of growth, exists no longer ; but whatever 
 belonged to its real inner essence still remains, only 
 perfected and completed in Christ. In the preparatory 
 stage prophecy was a necessity : there was to be an 
 advance in truth, and the authoritative revelation of 
 this growing truth was prophecy. It might have ex- 
 isted in various ways ; it did actually exist in more 
 ways than one : for the typical act, such as those re- 
 ferred to by St. Paul, virtually was a prophecy ; the 
 symbolical ritual was a prophecy ; but chiefly it ex- 
 isted in a race of men commissioned to speak from 
 time to time in the name of Jehovah. Men may and 
 do find fault with the manner in which prophecy ac- 
 tually existed : they would have arranged it differently. 
 But so would they have created the world differently, 
 and improved upon all God's works, — that is, had 
 the power been confided to them still such as they 
 are now, and they had remained in full possession 
 of their ignorance, their narrow faculties, and limited 
 judgment. For the mind of man cannot compre- 
 hend God, nor understand the reason of His acts : 
 and this, perhaps, is the lesson taught us by the mys- 
 tery when .Moses would have seen God. It is but as 
 
XX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from a cleft in a rock that man can see his Maker, 
 and even there God covers him with His hand, so 
 that at most he sees but His hinder parts. Man can- 
 not, therefore, view God's dealings from the front; 
 he cannot understand the causes of His acts; to do 
 so he must exist as a pure spirit ; at most he can un- 
 derstand only facts, and with these alone he is com- 
 petent to deal. Now God apparently so ordered it 
 that the prophets existed chiefly for the use of the 
 Jewish Church. Many of them did entirely so exist, 
 for of twelve prophets mentioned in the Scriptures as 
 living between the times of Solomon and those of 
 Uzziah, not one has left any prophecy on record, al- 
 though among them was Elijah, the very representa- 
 tive of the prophetic race. But while their mission 
 seemed thus bounded by the necessities of the Jewish 
 Church, — necessities occasioned by the insufficiency 
 of the revelation hitherto given it, — there were other 
 prophets who had also the further office of setting 
 forth the chief facts and doctrines of the Messiah's 
 kingdom. They probably did not themselves fully 
 understand all they said. They knew, of course, 
 when they appealed to the promise of a Messiah as 
 the surest guarantee of Israel's safety, what was the 
 primary import of their words, but they probably did 
 not know with how full a moaning those words were 
 fraught, and that they would combine into so exact 
 a representation of the Saviour, that His Apostles in 
 times to come would appeal to their writings as offer- 
 ing the most convincing proof that Jesus of Nazareth 
 was the Christ, the Messiah, and the Christian Church 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxui 
 
 in all ages rely upon them as " the more sure word 
 of prophecy." 
 
 But even these words had often a passing reference 
 to some event in Jewish history : and naturally so, 
 for, as we have just shewn, the Church of old pre- 
 figured the Church now. There was a necessary and 
 essential resemblance between them which made it 
 not unsuitable that what primarily was spoken of the 
 one should also travel onwards to the other. And 
 besides, the mission of the prophet was, in the main, 
 to his contemporaries ; and it seems ever to be the 
 law of the Spirit's operations, as much in His ex- 
 traordinary inspiration of the prophets of old, and of 
 the Evangelists and writers of the New Testament, 
 as in His ordinary guidance of men now, to interfere 
 as little as possible with the free agency of the indi- 
 vidual. The law seems the same as that whereby 
 God's providence directs His people. They cannot see 
 His hand, but must judge and act for themselves, and 
 yet when they look back, they can see how He has 
 led them, and shaped their course as was best for the 
 welfare of their souls. Similarly the prophets were 
 guided by the Spirit's influence, and that influence 
 often was powerful enough for them to know and feel 
 that what they spoke was not their own, but His ; 
 just as the Apostles also often claim to speak as. from 
 the Lord. And yet the influence was not such as to 
 interfere with their free-will ; ' for had it done so, the 
 prophets alone of men would not have had a proba- 
 tion, and therefore would have been capable neither of 
 reward nor of punishment. We find, however, that 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the interference with them was the very least possible. 
 Like Jonah, they might try to escape from bearing 
 the message, and repine because it brought them no 
 honour. Like Balaam, they might endeavour to make 
 God's gifts the means of advancing their worldly for- 
 tunes, and bring upon themselves condemnation. Like 
 the man of God from Judah, they might disobey, and 
 bring upon themselves death. And all are left in 
 possession of their own natural gifts : they have each 
 their own style, their own way of thinking, their own 
 amount of knowledge and experience. The Holy Ghost 
 did not teach them scientific truths, as many absurdly 
 think He ought. Had He done so, they should equally 
 have been instructed in all the various branches of 
 knowledge in which human progress chiefly consists, 
 only not as these truths are at present known imper- 
 fectly, but as they will be known thousands of years 
 hence, should the world last so long : with the unfor- 
 tunate result that the Bible therefore would have 
 been unintelligible as long as knowledge was imper- 
 fect and in progress only, and consequently to all 
 men at all times. But the law of creation, which 
 made man a free agent, and subjected him to a pro- 
 bation, required that even inspiration should not over- 
 power his will, nor interfere with the conditions of his 
 being ; for it is an impossibility for one law of God to 
 contradict another, or for one part of His dealings 
 to be at variance with the rest. 
 
 The prophets then spoke and acted in accordance 
 with their own individual characters and knowledge, 
 and that of the times in which they lived. Their 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 words, also, were addressed to their •contemporaries, 
 and were generally occasioned by some present event. 
 Bnt with all this the wonder is, that so frequently it 
 is impossible to explain their words of any occurrence 
 in Jewish history. They often start with an allusion 
 to something at the time, but seem entirely to forget 
 it, and leave it behind as they proceed. Even in the 
 seventh chapter of Isaiah, where everything seems to 
 require that the prophecy should in its primary appli- 
 cation be confined to some contemporaneous fact, it is 
 marvellous how impossible it is to do so, and how in- 
 extricable is the mesh of difficulties in which men 
 involve themselves in the attempt to find any other 
 satisfactory interpretation than that which refers it to 
 the Messiah. So, also, when one reads the efforts of 
 modern commentators to discover some person to whom 
 they can apply the ninth and fifty-third chapters of 
 the same prophet; when one observes the constant 
 changing and shifting of the argument, how one per- 
 son must do service here, and another there, in the 
 parts of the same prophecy; with what ingenuity 
 little points are made to bear a heavy strain, while 
 facts of moment are dismissed with contemptuous 
 silence ; with what confidence the most dubious facts 
 of profane history, and the most groundless traditions, 
 are treated as certain verities, while the narrative of 
 the Bible is dismissed as inaccurate, — as these things 
 are forced upon one's attention, one gradually arrives 
 at the conclusion, not merely that the Word of God 
 has nothing to fear from such an ordeal, but that this 
 double sense of prophecy is something much less than 
 
XXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 people generally imagine. It is scarcely more than 
 this, that the occasion of the prophecy was given by 
 some contemporaneous event, which event was speedily 
 forgotten, and had no farther influence upon the pro- 
 phet's words. 
 
 Very many of the prophecies do not belong to the 
 Messiah, but have reference solely to the temporal 
 fortunes of the Jewish people, and the nations round ; 
 and their use now is confined to illustrating the great 
 laws of morality and providence, while they also prove 
 the reality of prophecy by the agreement of the pre- 
 dictions with recorded facts. Of these, however, I 
 am not now speaking, but of such as belong to Christ 
 and His Church. ]Sow some of these have a twofold 
 application, for they belong first of all to the Jewish 
 Church, but in fuller measure to the Christian. And 
 if among them some apparently apply to the Jewish 
 nation, we must remember that to the minds of the 
 prophets the nation was identical with the Church. 
 It ought to have been so : the very idea of the theo- 
 cracy was the complete identification of Church and 
 State, and the prophets often regard the nation in its 
 ideal rather than in its real character. But there arc 
 also prophecies which refer simply to our Lord, and 
 which no straightforward criticism can interpret other- 
 wise ; or, at all events, the balance of evidence is so 
 entirely in favour of their Messianic interpretation 
 that any other interpretation can only serve to en- 
 tangle the expositor in a labyrinth of difficulties. 
 There arc many difficulties for all in the exposition 
 of (he Old Testament, many hard questions which 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVU 
 
 may serve to exercise our patience and try our faith ; 
 but the hardest of all tasks, I believe, would be to read 
 it, and not find there a sufficient preparation for and 
 proof of the Gospel dispensation, 
 
 Now these considerations upon the general nature 
 of the proof to be deduced from prophecy in favour of 
 Christianity must be borne in mind in the examination 
 of each particular prophecy; for it is not upon the 
 particular prophecy that the Christian argument is 
 staked, but upon the agreement and convergency of 
 all prophecy, and the manner in which its isolated 
 statements all find their completion in Christ. No 
 doubt many of the prophecies had a slight and passing 
 reference to some contemporaneous event, but even 
 that was possible only because the Jewish Church was 
 itself a type of the Christian. The law, we read, was 
 "a schoolmaster to bring men unto Christ;" it was 
 an education of the Jew first and then of the Gentile, 
 to fit them for receiving the Gospel; and naturally, 
 therefore, local and temporary occurrences were made 
 by the providence of God the means of instructing 
 men in eternal truths; and prophecies, which took 
 their origin in events immediately about to happen, 
 hurried irresistibly onward till they reached the glories 
 of Messiah's reign. So was it with our Lord. An 
 apparently casual remark in praise of the buildings of 
 the temple led Him to foretell their ruin ; but as He 
 spake of the Soman armies encircling Jerusalem, His 
 words soon gathered a deeper meaning, and passed 
 onwards to the dread visitations at all times of God's 
 
XXViii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 justice, and chiefly to its last and greatest manifesta- 
 tion at the final day of account. And so was it with 
 Isaiah's prophecy of the Immanuel. From the pre- 
 servation of Ahaz, the unworthy occupant of David's 
 throne, and the overthrow of Judah's enemies, in 
 a time so short that a child then to be born would be 
 as yet too young to distinguish between good and 
 evil, the Spirit's influence so controlled his words that 
 they passed on to the Virgin's Child, the Immanuel 
 who is God and Man ; and finally, leaving far behind 
 him all thought of the impending danger, he told of 
 the light that should shine in Zebulon and Naphthali, 
 which were no parts of Ahaz's kingdom, and of " the 
 Son, on whose shoulder is the government, and whose 
 name is "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the 
 everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." 
 
 If it is necessary to bear in mind the nature of pro- 
 phecy itself, equally so is it to understand rightly the 
 prophet's office. As we have already seen, he was 
 the living infallible authority, rendered necessary in 
 the Jewish dispensation by the insufficiency of the 
 light already given, and therefore his business lay 
 rather with the present than with the future, and was 
 not so much to foretell as to teach. He was not 
 a diviner, whose profession it was to search out future 
 events, but one commissioned to speak authoritatively 
 in another's name. *He was the 7rpo(prjTrj9, the spokes- 
 man of another, another's mouthpiece; just as Aaron 
 was the prophet of Moses'; and in his highest dig- 
 
 a Exod. vii. 1. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 nity he was one who spoke for God, God's spokesman. 
 It is simply a mistake to regard prediction as syno- 
 nymous with prophecy, or even as the chief portion 
 of the prophet's duties. Whether the language be 
 Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, the ancient words for 
 prophecy all refer to a state of mind, an emotion, an 
 influence, and not to prescience. The prophet is one 
 who is taken out of himself and carried away by an 
 influence from another, although not deprived of the 
 power of resisting this influence b . His free agency 
 did not cease ; prophets could and did refuse obedience ; 
 but when once they had surrendered themselves to 
 the Spirit, their words ceased to be their own c , nor 
 did they necessarily understand their purport. In 
 Hebrew the verb "to prophesy" is never used in any 
 active conjugation: of the numerous modes used by 
 that language to express the conditions of the verb, it 
 applies two only to the word in question, the simple 
 passive, in the sense of "to prophesy," and the re- 
 flective passive, in the sense of " to act the prophet," 
 " to behave like a prophet d ;" and by the use of these 
 passive conjugations solely, it shews that the prophet 
 was controlled by another ; that he spake not his own 
 words, but was the bearer of a message, the authority 
 of which depended not upon the speaker, but upon 
 him in whose ( name he spake. Similarly in Greek the 
 prophet's proper designation is fxavrig, a word con- 
 nected with fiaivo/uLai, and descriptive of the vehe- 
 mence of the impulse which urged him to give his 
 
 b 1 Cor. xiv. 32. c !Nurnb. xxii. 38. d 1 Sam. xyiii. 10. 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ■utterance. So in Latin, it is a passive verb, vaticinor, 
 of which Cicero says vaticinari et insanirc, to prophesy 
 is the same thing as to be beside oneself : and by this 
 very term insanivit, the Chaldee paraphrast explains 
 the passage in 1 Sam. xviii. 10, "An evil spirit came 
 upon Saul, and he prophesied," or rather, "behaved like 
 a prophet in the house." It means, he says, "he was 
 mad," ">artt»Nj and his acts resembled those of men 
 who had surrendered themselves to the prophetic 
 impulse. 
 
 Yet probably it was but seldom that this fervour 
 came upon the true prophet. It was possibly more 
 frequently paraded by pretenders to prophecy, than 
 really felt by the true seer. The contemptuous lan- 
 guage of the common peoj)le, which confounded pro- 
 phecy and madness, though less contemptuous than 
 with us, for madness is viewed with a sort of respect 
 in the East, yet leads us to suspect that there were 
 many, half deceivers half self-deceived, who, like the 
 dervishes now, indulged in violent gesticulations and 
 grotesque bodily contortions, until they had worked 
 themselves into a temporary frenzy, during which 
 they gave utterance to unconnected words, which the 
 superstition of the people regarded as prophetic, and 
 which from their very vagueness were easily capable 
 of being dragged into agreement with future events. 
 In the true prophet there seems to have been little of 
 this. We find Balaam indeed falling into a trance, 
 but his eyes were open. The captains said unto Jehu, 
 "What did this mad fellow say unto thee?" but 
 it was probably the abruptness of his entry, his curt 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxi 
 
 sharp words, his sudden flight, which startled them. 
 We find the prophets often performing symbolical 
 acts, which to our cold Northern manners seem strange, 
 but in their general bearing there is usually great 
 calmness and dignity. When Nathan rebukes David, 
 when Elijah gathers the people to Carmel, when 
 Isaiah foretells the destruction of the Assyrian host, 
 when Jeremiah writes his warnings in a roll for the 
 self-willed king, all is majesty, and the noble repose 
 of minds supported by the divine strength. Doubt- 
 less there was often fervour ; their hearts burnt within 
 them at the terrific import of words which they knew 
 came from God ; often in their visions, like St. Paul, 
 they could not have told whether they were in the 
 body or out of the body, whether they saw with their 
 natural eyes, or the mind aloue, endued with new 
 powers, held converse with the things of a higher 
 world : but we find no instances of the prophet losing 
 his free agency, and, degraded beneath the dignity of 
 man, becoming the mere instrument' of a compulsion 
 from without. They claim in their writings a divine 
 authority, but we find nothing of the fury of the 
 Pythoness and the rage of the Sibyl. These are 
 the marks of the false prophet; the notes of God's 
 works are majesty and repose. 
 
 The main office of the prophet was to be a teacher 
 of morality and religion. The motives and sanctions 
 of the Jewish law were not sufficient to bend the 
 hearts of men to a holy life, and therefore the schools 
 of the prophets were instituted, not by any enactment 
 of the law, but by some prophet probably, or course 
 
xxxn INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of prophets, for the training of those who felt them- 
 selves called to be preachers of righteousness. Among 
 them from time to time rose men with higher powers, 
 and on whom the Spirit of God rested in an extraordi- 
 nary manner : but often centuries passed by without 
 any one of them claiming to be inspired of Jehovah, or 
 being reputed by the people as such. And then came 
 times when there were many prophets, as in David's 
 reign, and such as was that wonderful series of men 
 who for so long a time struggled with the growing 
 idolatry of the kingdom of the ten tribes, and gave 
 them a final opportunity of repentance. There were 
 also then numerous pretenders to prophecy, but it 
 seems to have been no difficult matter to distinguish 
 them from the true ; for when four hundred prophets 
 predicted victory to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, the latter 
 plainly put no faith in their words, but enquired whe- 
 ther there were not one prophet of Jehovah besides. 
 Even the idolatrous Ahab acknowledged in Micaiah, 
 the son of Imlah, something higher than in his own 
 loud-tongued seers ; and though the prediction of his 
 death did not prevent him from entering the battle, 
 yet he sought to escape what he probably felt was 
 inevitable by a disguise. But it was only during the 
 rapid decline of Judah that written prophecy became 
 frequent. The prophets seem from the first to have 
 kept records of the lives of the kings, and the habits 
 of authorship thus acquired were used by the over- 
 ruling providence of God to prepare the people for the 
 substitution of Christ's spiritual reign in the place of 
 that temporal kingdom which was fast fading away. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXU1 
 
 And when the full outline of Messiah's advent had 
 been given, and the people restored to their land 
 after the Babylonian exile, prophecy became silent. 
 Enough for the present wants of the people had been 
 bestowed, and the provision for reading the Law, the 
 Prophets, and the Psalms in their synagogues on the 
 Sabbath-day kept ever before their eyes the moral 
 lessons of their former seers. Their idolatrous ten- 
 dencies had ceased: their faith in God had become 
 firm and unwavering. So far the teaching of the 
 prophets had accomplished its purpose. But with 
 their moral teaching had ever been combined another 
 element ; where the teaching had been only moral it 
 had passed away. Nathan and Gad, Ahijah and 
 Shemaiah, Elijah and Elisha, appear only in the 
 records of Jewish history; but there were others 
 who had the further office of declaring the great 
 truths of the Christian covenant, and their works 
 remain. They may have thought chiefly of the 
 earthly Jerusalem, but their words belonged to the 
 Christian Church. They may have thought chiefly 
 of present needs, but God was using them for His 
 eternal purposes ; and when we read the Prophets 
 of old, we feel that it is not an extinct national 
 literature that we are studying, we are not among 
 things that belong merely to the past ; God by them 
 still speaks to us ; they are the lively, the still living 
 oracles, the \6yia £a>i>Ta, of truth. They still pos- 
 sess an authority over us, still claim our obedi- 
 ence; they still tell us of our dangers, and of our 
 safety; of our sins, and of the atonement wrought 
 
 c 
 
■xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for them; of our alienation from God, and of Him 
 who is the Immanuel, the God-man, God of God, 
 and yet very man, that He might be the Mediator, 
 who could reconcile us to God, and heal the breach 
 which sin had made between the Creator and the 
 creature. 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 Page 179, line 1, for Hurie!, read HusieL 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON L— Isaiah vii. i 4 . 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 „ II. — Isaiah ix. 6 
 
 4 
 
 • 33 
 
 „ III. — Isaiah xi. i, a 
 
 . 52 
 
 „ IV. — Isaiah xl. 1 
 
 • 9° 
 
 „ V. — Isaiah xlii. 1 — 4 
 
 126 
 
 „ VI. — Isaiah lii. 13 . 
 
 • L57 
 
 „ VII. — Isaiah liii. 4 
 
 192 
 
 „ VIII. — Isaiah lxv. 17 . 
 
 • 22 3 
 
 „ IX. — Isaiah lxv. 17 . 
 
 . 252 
 
SERMON I.' 
 
 Isaiah vii. 14. 
 
 " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall 
 call His name Immanuel." 
 
 f\F the prophecies of Isaiah none has excited greater 
 attention, or more frequently been the chosen 
 battle-field of hostile criticism, than that contained 
 in the seventh, eighth, and first seven verses of the 
 ninth chapters. And naturally so ; for it contains 
 in itself all the most remarkable features of Jewish 
 prophecy, — its strength, and also what many consider 
 to be its weakness. It was spoken upon the occasion 
 of an urgent impending danger ; in its general aspect 
 and primary bearings it seems to refer to present 
 events : and nevertheless, its Messianic character is 
 affirmed by the Apostles, and ever prominently put 
 forward by the Christian Church. Even those who 
 deny that it refers to Christ, nevertheless assert that 
 it has moulded Christian doctrine ; and that when we 
 profess our belief in the great article of the Apostles' 
 Creed, that the Saviour was born of the Virgin Mary, 
 we are affirming a tenet which owes its existence to 
 a mistaken application of the words of the text \ 
 
 a Preached upon the occasion of the annual sermon upon the 
 Jewish Interpretation of Prophecy. 
 
 b Gesenius, Einleitung zum Com. uber Jes., p. 40. 
 
 B 
 
2, SERMON I. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that no slight matter is at 
 stake ; for if the virgin's child is a son of Ahaz, or 
 a son of Isaiah, — if the child who is given unto us is 
 Hezekiah, or Mahershalal, — what the Church loses is 
 not merely the confirmation of prophecy to the Mes- 
 siah's advent, but the doctrines connected with His 
 being the Virgin-born. But these are no less than 
 His immaculate conception, and the sinlessness of His 
 human nature. And as the absolute purity of the 
 human nature was essential to its union with the di- 
 vine; our Lord ceases to be the one Mediator between 
 God and man, and becomes man only ; a great, and 
 wise, but merely human prophet. He is an Immanuel, 
 not as being Himself God and man, inseparably united 
 in one person, but only as being one by whom God 
 has helped man; an Immanuel only in an inferior 
 sense, as a sign of God's providential presence with 
 His people. It is the same in the interpretation of 
 the fifty-third chapter. If Jeremiah is the object 
 there of the affectionate threnody of his follower Ba- 
 ruch, it is not simply the testimony of prophecy that 
 we lose, but the doctrine of the Atonement. In no 
 part of the New Testament is the nature of the pro- 
 pitiation made for sin by the sacrifice on the cross 
 more clearly stated than in Isaiah's words ; and if it 
 be proved that that chapter does not refer to our 
 Lord, and that the Apostles were mistaken in apply- 
 ing it to Him, the belief of all Christian men from 
 the earliest ages to the present day in the efficacy 
 of our Saviour's death ceases to have a foundation. 
 The Christian Scriptures are convicted of error in 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE PROPHECIES NECESSARY. 3 
 
 their most vital point ; and both the Jewish and Chris- 
 tian Church cease to be the bearers of a message from 
 God to man. Kevelation is but a mistake, and be- 
 lievers in it are the victims of a baseless superstition. 
 
 With so much at issue, it is essential that these 
 questions should be fully examined. No man can 
 afford to stake his faith upon doctrines which will 
 not admit of the fullest enquiry. And when on every 
 side we hear the confident assertions of those who 
 consider that modern criticism has proved the weak- 
 ness of the foundations upon which men have built 
 their faith for eighteen centuries, it becomes neces- 
 sary to examine these questions anew for ourselves ; 
 were it only because repeated assertion is sure to in- 
 fluence our belief to a certain extent until we carefully 
 examine what proof it has to offer. But such an en- 
 quiry should be made on both sides with care and 
 scrupulousness. To tamper with men's belief is a 
 serious thing ; and between the unbinding of the old 
 fastenings and the tying of the new, the faith of a 
 whole generation may be rudely shaken, if the dis- 
 putants are more eager to unloose than to bind, to 
 destroy than to build up. Whatever are men's true 
 and final convictions let them honestly express, but 
 with care, and only after an earnest and conscientious 
 examination into the reasons of their belief, lest they 
 be found, not the planters of truth, but the subverters 
 of other men's faith. 
 
 For here, perhaps, there is an error in our current 
 views against which we ought to guard. In our dis- 
 putes with Borne, owing to the necessity of protect- 
 
 b2 
 
 
4 SEEMON I. 
 
 ing our position, our theologians have been apt to 
 speak chiefly of the "right" of private judgment; 
 and those who have taken less controversial ground 
 have described it as a " duty." Truly it is neither 
 one nor the other, but a necessity : men must choose. 
 Eaise a man by education to but the slightest degree 
 of thought, and he begins to judge, — ignorantly often 
 and foolishly, but necessarily. It is a part of his 
 heritage of free-will. But the choice is like that 
 which every man must make between good and evil : 
 to choose is the most momentous duty of life, and 
 its consequences, we believe, affect the soul perma- 
 nently. Just, then, as many men choose moral evil, 
 so will many men choose mental evil. They have no 
 right to do so ; it is not a duty to do so ; they must 
 answer before God, and in a measure before man, 
 for what they choose to believe, as well as for what 
 they choose to do. But it is certain that many will 
 choose wrongly ; and, in fact, it is no more wonderful 
 that men arrive at different conclusions than that they 
 arrive at different standards of morality: but when 
 any one endeavours to persuade others to adopt his 
 views, he is incurring a further responsibility; and 
 nothing but repeated examination, and the firmest 
 conviction of the truth of his conclusions, can justify 
 any one in subverting the bulwarks of that Chris- 
 tianity, which if it be not true, then has God given 
 no revealed truth to man. 
 
 Let, then, the prophecies of Isaiah be carefully ex- 
 amined : they are of too great importance, too closely 
 connected with Christianity, for us to be able to con- 
 
OCCASION OF THE FROPHECY. 5 
 
 tent ourselves with indefinite opinions concerning 
 them. They are too much part and parcel of Chris- 
 tianity for us to hold the one and give up the other, 
 or be indifferent about their right interpretation. And 
 to fear the result of the most stringent examination 
 is to acknowledge that the foundations of our faith 
 are already sapped; whereas if holy men of old 
 did really speak as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost, we may feel quite sure that the more search- 
 ing the enquiry into their words, the more satisfactory 
 will be the result. 
 
 The prophecy, then, from which my text is taken 
 was spoken upon the occasion of the threatened attack 
 upon Jerusalem by the combined forces of Eezin King 
 of Syria, and Pekah King of Israel. Spoken then, 
 but committed to writing long afterwards : for it is 
 plain that on more than one occasion the prophecies 
 of Isaiah were delivered extemporaneously, and sub- 
 sequently written . The advance of the two kings 
 upon the capital naturally excited great terror there ; 
 for already Pekah, unaided by any ally, had defeated 
 Ahaz, and slain of Judah 120,000 valiant men, and 
 carried 200,000 women and children into captivity. 
 And when, following up his successes, he laid siege 
 to Jerusalem, and after a temporary failure formed 
 a powerful confederacy for her utter ruin, " the heart 
 of the house of David was moved, and the heart of 
 his people as the trees of the wood are moved with 
 the wind." In this emergency, Isaiah, though still 
 c Cf. Gresenius, Einleitung, p. 35. 
 
6 SER3I0N I. 
 
 but a very young man, was commissioned to encourage 
 Aliaz by a series of prophecies, in which, as they were 
 subsequently committed to writing, we find three 
 most important statements concerning our Lord : the 
 first, that He was to be the Yirgin-born, and His 
 name Immanuel; the second, that Zebulon and 
 Naphthali should be the chief seat of His earthly 
 sojourn ; and lastly, that He claims, as His attributes, 
 to be Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
 Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 
 
 Common sense requires that a series of connected 
 prophecies should be taken together ; for whatever is 
 their true explanation, it must be equally applicable 
 to all parts alike. But we believe that none but the 
 Christian interpretation does adequately represent their 
 combined meaning ; while to the Jews of the middle 
 ages, who were the first objectors to their Messianic 
 application, they thus occasioned no little difficulty. 
 For they had no one to whom they could refer the 
 Immanuel but Isaiah's son; and at the same time 
 they felt the impossibility of his being the Child on 
 whose shoulder is the government, and who is the 
 Prince of Peace, and therefore they applied the latter 
 part of the prophecy to the youthful Hezekiah. But 
 obscured as is the unity of this series of prophecies by 
 the division of our version into chapters and verses, 
 nowhere more unhappy than in the book of Isaiah, it 
 is generally acknowledged by modern commentators ; 
 and we may therefore regard it as a conceded fact, 
 that these predictions, spoken in rapid succession upon 
 the approach of Pckah's host, were subsequently 
 
MEANING OF THE WORD ' ALMAHY 7 
 
 moulded by Isaiah's pen into one consistent whole ; 
 and consequently, the true interpretation must embrace 
 every portion of the prophecy. 
 
 In the opening prediction the main strength of the 
 Jewish attack is directed against the word rendered in 
 our version ' virgin :' u Behold, a virgin shall conceive.'' 
 They cannot deny that its most natural meaning is 
 ' virgin,' or that it is so rendered — irapOevos — by the 
 Seventy interpreters, in whose work we have the un- 
 biassed views of the Jews upon their Scriptures, com- 
 mitted to writing while their language was still a 
 living tongue, and before their opposition to Christi- 
 anity had made them anxious to weaken the testimony 
 of their prophetic books. It is a translation, moreover, 
 made at a time prior by several centuries to the di- 
 vision of the Hebrew text into its component words, 
 and by twice as many centuries anterior to the inven- 
 tion of that artificial system of vowels by which the 
 Masorites have tied down the meaning of the Old 
 Testament to the traditions of the Jewish schools of 
 Tiberias and Sora. The authority, therefore, of the 
 Septuagint is not to be lightly disregarded. But on 
 the other hand, as early as the time of Justin Martyr 
 the Jews rejected this interpretation, and Trypho 
 argues that it need mean nothing more than veavis, 
 1 a young woman,' and affirms that Hezekiah was the 
 child meant ; Hezekiah being at that time, according 
 to the chronology of the Scriptures, ten years old. 
 From this ground, then, the obvious facts of chronology 
 at once drove the Jews, and their famous commentator 
 David Kiinchi says, " The young woman may be the 
 

 8 SERMON I. 
 
 wife of Ahaz, or she may be the wife of Isaiah ; but 
 the Immanuel cannot be Hezekiah." 
 
 In the treatises, however, written by the Jews with 
 the express purpose of impugning Christianity, the 
 subject is entered upon at greater length, and espe- 
 cially in those to which they give the vaunting title 
 of Nizzachon, or Victory, regarding them as unanswer- 
 able confutations of the truth of Christianity. But as 
 the Jewish argument is nowhere so ably given as in 
 Eabbi Isak ben Abraham's " Pillar of the Truth," a 
 wwk justly considered as their most masterly apology 
 for their refusal to accept the Christian faith, and widely 
 diffused among them by continual reprints, I cannot 
 do better than confine myself to his statements. After 
 an examination then of the word Almah, Eabbi Isak 
 concludes that it does not necessarily signify a virgin, 
 but may mean any young woman. And then he asks, 
 What sign would the birth of Jesus be to Ahaz, terri- 
 fied by the present league between Samaria and Da- 
 mascus ? What encouragement would it give him to 
 know that five hundred years afterwards a child would 
 be born contrary to the usual course of nature ? He 
 wanted some present assurance ; and this God gave 
 him. For, 1st, in the mention of the threescore and 
 five years, within which Ephraim should be broken, 
 Isaiah recalled to the king's mind the well-known 
 predictions of Amos i. 5, vii. 17, the fulfilment of 
 which would fall in the third year of Ahaz' reign : 
 and, 2nd, he gave him a present sign; for the pro- 
 phetess, Isaiah's wife, should immediately conceive 
 a male child, who would bear three names, — for 
 
JEWISH TREATISES AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 9 
 
 the Jews Immanuel, conveying thereby a pledge of 
 God's constant presence among them ; for Samaria 
 Mahershalal, and for the king of Syria Hashbaz, im- 
 plying, in both cases, the speedy overthrow of those 
 two powers. As proof of this identification of Isaiah's 
 son with the Immanuel, he adduces the parallel verses, 
 " Before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and 
 choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be 
 forsaken of both her kings," as following immediately 
 in chap. vii. upon the mention of the Immanuel ; and 
 "Before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My 
 father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and 
 the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the 
 king of Assyria," similarly following in chap. viii. 
 upon the mention of Mahershalal: thus limiting the 
 whole scope of the prophecy to the narrow bounds of 
 Israel's political fortunes, and giving no higher import 
 to the name Immanuel than to that of Shear-Jashub, 
 Isaiah's other son. 
 
 But as already the great Jewish commentator David 
 Kimchi had rejected this interpretation, and shewn 
 that this was too narrow a sense for the terms of the 
 prophecy, — for how, he asks, would Isaiah venture to 
 say of his own son, " and the stretching out of his 
 wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, Immanuel," 
 — Isak endeavours to shew that this passage need mean 
 no more than that Judoea was the native country of 
 Immanuel. He thinks, moreover, that Isaiah possibly 
 might not have known at first who was signified by 
 the Almah, the destined mother of the child; and 
 thus accounts for the variation of phrase in the eighth 
 
IO SEKMON I. 
 
 chapter, " I went unto the prophetess." Still dubious 
 also whether the diversity of names may not imply 
 a diversity of persons, he suggests that his mother 
 may have called him Immanuel, and his father Maher- 
 shalal. Further, pressed by the difficulty that there 
 was nothing wonderful, no sign, in Isaiah having a 
 second son, he answers, that every birth is a miracle, 
 and that this birth was to be connected with the de- 
 liverance of Jerusalem from the confederate kings ; 
 and moreover, the child was not to be nourished upon 
 the ordinary food of infants, but was to eat butter and 
 honey, whence his early ev(j)via, his precocity in re- 
 jecting evil even in his cradle, and choosing the good. 
 That this even would be the natural consequence of 
 such unusual diet he infers from the words of Isaiah d , 
 " Whom shall God teach knowledge ? and whom shall 
 He make to understand doctrine? Them that are 
 weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts." 
 As to the Christian assertion, that the name Immanuel 
 refers to the union of the divine and human natures 
 in one person, he says, that it is the idiom of the 
 Hebrew language to form its proper names by the 
 use of some title of the Godhead, either prefixed, as 
 in Yeho-shafat, 'God is judge;' or added on, as in 
 Isaiah, that is, Yesa-yah, ' God shall save ;' Jeremiah, 
 that is, Yirm-yah, ' God shall cast down :' or with the 
 other name of deity, El, as in Samuel, Zuriel, Ezechiel, 
 and the like. So even Jerusalem is styled in Jere- 
 miah c " Jehovah our righteousness." Finally, he ob- 
 
 d Isa. xxviii. 9. * Jor. xxxiii. 16. 
 
SHIFTING OF THE ARGUMENT. I I 
 
 jects, that the son of Mary never was called Immanuel, 
 but Yeshua, Jesus. 
 
 But when he arrives at the end of the prophecy, 
 Babbi Isak changes his ground; for he argues that 
 the son there is Hezekiah, as is proved, he thinks, by 
 the use of the past tense, — " a son is born," " a child is 
 given ;" and Hezekiah was then nine or ten years old. 
 Nor, he thinks, are those magnificent words, — words 
 so differently translated by the scholars of the present 
 day, — in which Isaiah contrasts the noise and tumult 
 and blood-stained garments of the battles of earthly 
 warriors with the battles of the Lord, too grand for 
 the description of the silent visit of the fiery angel to 
 the camp of the Assyrians, whereby in the stillness of 
 one night a mighty host was gathered to the dead. 
 But even here a difficulty meets him, for the sixth 
 verse of the ninth chapter cannot possibly apply to 
 Hezekiah ; the Prophet would not venture to call a 
 boy ten years old "the mighty God, the Father of 
 eternity :" and therefore Babbi Isak accuses Jerome 
 of corrupting the text; as if the very value of Jerome's 
 version did not consist in his adhering so faithfully 
 to the traditions of his Jewish teachers. Apparently, 
 however, he considers the Masoretic points to be 
 as old as Jerome, and proposes to alter them so far 
 as to allow of the verse being translated thus, — " He 
 who is Wonderful, and the Counsellor, even the 
 Mighty God, who is the Everlasting Father, shall call 
 Hezekiah's name the Prince of Peace." But even so 
 the difficulty is not escaped ; for the next verse 
 equally refuses to be tied down to Hezekiah. For 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 how could Isaiah truly say of him, " Of the increase 
 of his government and peace" — words both occurring 
 in the previous verse — " there shall be no end, upon 
 the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order 
 it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice 
 from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord 
 of Hosts will perform this." For the chequered reign 
 of Hezekiah these words are far too large ; and there- 
 fore Isak sees in it a promise of the restoration of the 
 temporal kingdom to the descendants of David as soon 
 as the present calamities of the Jews shall have passed 
 away ; and Messiah, a temporal king, having defeated 
 their enemies, shall restore them to their country, and 
 found there an earthly realm, upon the throne of 
 which, after his death — for Messiah is to die — kings 
 of his race — for he shall see a literal seed — shall reign 
 gloriously, but after the manner of earthly kingdoms, 
 for ever. 
 
 JSTow, if this interpretation seem to many upon 
 hearing it to have its weak points, and to be capable 
 of easy refutation, it arises solely from two things : 
 the first, that Eabbi Isak was a believer in prophecy ; 
 the second, that he did endeavour to make his inter- 
 pretation embrace all the parts of the prediction. In 
 other respects his argument suggests all the main 
 features upon which modern critics rely. They, too, 
 say that the Almah was Isaiah's wife, a second wife 
 probably whom he was just about to marry, or some 
 young woman standing by ; but when they arc asked 
 how the Prophet could say of her child, that " the 
 spreading of the wings of Assyria shall cover the 
 
VIEWS OF MODERN CRITICS. 1 3 
 
 fulness of the breadth of thy land, Immanuel," they 
 answer, that it is mere poetry : such passages must 
 not be strictly construed : the word Immanuel led the 
 Prophet to the general thought of God's providence 
 protecting the land; and we need not conclude that 
 he was thinking of any particular person whatsoever f . 
 Equally, in the ninth chapter, they say that the child 
 there described is Hezekiah ; but when the difficulty 
 is stated, that the titles in the sixth verse, and the 
 prediction of an unending reign of peace in the seventh, 
 cannot apply to Hezekiah, they answer, that prognos- 
 tication is an idea incorrectly attached to that of pro- 
 phecy. Isaiah hoped that the reign of Hezekiah would 
 be an era of splendour and general prosperity, but he 
 was mistaken ; and the titles, which are capable of a 
 less forcible translation, amount only to the expression 
 of a hope, that the youthful prince would prove to be 
 a wise, brave, and peaceful sovereign. In a word, 
 "that this ideal," says Gesenius g , "was not realized 
 in Hezekiah is no proof that it was not intended for 
 him : for the actual facts constantly fall short of the 
 ideal expectations of the prophets." 
 
 Both schools, however, agree in the endeavour to 
 tie down the meaning to the narrowest possible limit ; 
 but as the Jew grants the necessity of every prophecy 
 being fulfilled, he is often reduced to the most puerile 
 shifts by difficulties which the rationalist, who denies 
 the supernatural element of prophecy, escapes. This 
 the Jew indeed grants, but as he rejects the larger 
 and spiritual, and Christian sense, every expression 
 f Cf. Meier, Der Prop. Jes., p. 106. 8 Com. uber Jes., p. 362. 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 of the Prophet must be fulfilled in its literal signifi- 
 cation. The lion eating straw like the ox does not 
 mean, according to Eabbi Isak's interpretation, that 
 men of violent and cruel tempers shall be softened 
 by the influence of those better hopes which the 
 Messiah has brought with Him, but that the physical 
 conformation of that animal shall undergo a recon- 
 struction. The vision of the holy waters in Ezekiel 
 xlvii. is not understood of the outpouring of grace 
 upon the barren soil of the soul, but so literally, that 
 the very course is mapped out which the two streams 
 shall take. And in the vision of Zechariah, the cleav- 
 ing of the Mount of Olives does not suggest the di- 
 viding of the Jewish people into those who accept and 
 those who reject the new covenant, but is explained 
 of physical convulsions, whereby an actual fissure is 
 formed in the centre of that hill. And similarly, 
 the rest of the imagery which the prophets use to 
 suggest those things which the heart of man hath 
 never been able to conceive, are, as a general rule, 
 understood by the Jews in their simple and literal 
 sense. 
 
 But puerile as are such interpretations, they are 
 not more so than the assumption that the butter and 
 honey literally signified the diet upon which the young 
 child should feed ; they are even less puerile than the 
 use of the text quoted to prove the extraordinary re- 
 sult which might be expected to follow upon such 
 nourishment. But the main weakness of the expo- 
 sition consists in its constant shifting of ground. Now 
 the young child is Isaiah's son ; and then it is Heze- 
 
CHARACTER OF PROPHECY. 1 5 
 
 kiah: to make it suit even him, tkcre must be a 
 violent alteration of the Masorctic. text, tke work, 
 not of Jerome, but of Jewish hands, made many cen- 
 turies subsequent to Jerome's time, but embodying 
 the traditions of scrupulously honest Jewish schools. 
 And even so, his text will not suit his purpose, but 
 while a part belongs to Hezekiah, the rest must be 
 referred to a Messiah, of whose character he can form 
 no higher conception than that he shall be a successful 
 warrior, who shall found a kingdom, and entail it upon 
 the heirs male of his djmasty for ever. 
 
 To enter upon the particular examination of the 
 Jewish arguments one by one would suit rather the 
 patient investigation of a commentary than the neces- 
 sarily narrow limits of a public discourse. It may be 
 enough to remark, that even were it the case that 
 there is an allusion in Isaiah's words to some child 
 then to be born, it by no means invalidates the Chris- 
 tian argument. For while the prophets supposed 
 themselves to be speaking of things present, the fer- 
 vour of inspiration often carried them onwards into 
 future times : and just as in some landscape seen from 
 a distant point the various parts approach one an- 
 other and blend together, but as we travel onwards 
 we find them separated by intervals more or less re- 
 mote, so in the pictures on which the mental eye of 
 the rapt seer gazed, events withdrawn from one 
 another by periods more or less distant often group 
 themselves together, and are all described by the Pro- 
 phet in the same one Hebrew tense which expresses 
 an act as just accomplished. 
 
1 6 SERMON I. 
 
 So, then, the prophecy with which we are now con- 
 cerned rises from the local to. the universal ; from the 
 temporary to the eternal ; from the fortunes of the 
 carnal Israel to the Christian Church ; from the pre- 
 servation of Jerusalem from the arms of Pekah to 
 the deliverance of the world from sin and Satan. 
 
 That the prophecy was not finally fulfilled in con- 
 temporaneous events we may, I think, infer from the 
 consideration that plainly it was committed to writing 
 long after its temporary use had passed away. For 
 the seventh, eighth, and first seven verses of the ninth 
 chapters contain, as I have remarked before, a series 
 of prophecies and prophetic acts, all referring to the 
 same event ; and of which, probably, some record was 
 kept at the time : but the form in which they have 
 come down to us is evidently the work of a later pe- 
 riod, and probably belongs to that time when Isaiah 
 was led by the Spirit of God to collect his scattered 
 prophecies into one book. That Isaiah did himself so 
 collect them, we may conclude from the probability of 
 the case, from his habits as an author h , and from their 
 early existence in writing, as is shewn by the use 
 made of them by other prophets, as by Jeremiah, who 
 in his forty-eighth chapter repeatedly alludes to the 
 oracle against Moab contained in Isaiah xv., xvi. : and 
 in addition, we have the express testimony of the title 
 prefixed to the first chapter. It is, in fact, no im- 
 probable conjecture, that the Prophet occupied his 
 later years in forming into one volume the records 
 of the earlier outpourings of his spirit, and that he 
 11 Cf. 2 Chron. xxvi. 22, xxxii. 32. 
 
DATE OF THE PROPHECY. 
 
 J 7 
 
 not only then wrote that earnest warning and expostu- 
 lation with the people by which they are now prefaced, ' 
 but also that series of prophecies which commences 
 with the fortieth chapter, and in which, unstirred by 
 the political events which had previously agitated his 
 mind, with his fervour softened by the weight of many 
 years, but in the full clearness and calm repose of in- 
 tellectual vigour, he pourtrays the Messiah's sufferings 
 and death, and the founding of His universal Church. 
 
 In the present prophecy, were we even to lay but 
 slight stress upon the historic form in which the whole 
 narrative is cast, and of which the opening words are 
 an instance, — " It came to pass in the days of Ahaz," 
 as if Ahaz were now no more, — no one can mistake 
 the plain allusions in it to events which occurred 
 after that king's death. For there can be no reason- 
 able doubt that " the first light affliction of the land 
 of Zebulon" refers to the campaign of Tiglath-Pileser, 
 while "the more grievous affliction in Galilee of the 
 Gentiles" is the desolating inroad of Shalmaneser, 
 which happened in the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign. 
 Now as Ahaz reigned sixteen years, and the assault 
 upon Jerusalem by Pekah took place soon after he 
 mounted the throne, the record of the prophecy in 
 its present form is at least twenty years subsequent 
 to the circumstances which gave rise to it. 
 
 And from this, I think, we may fairly conclude that 
 the purpose for which it was finally admitted into that 
 written series of Isaiah's prophecies which was to form 
 part of God's holy Word, was not so much the record- 
 ing of a past event, as the leading on the minds of 
 
 c 
 
I 8 SERMON I. 
 
 the Jews to that which was the centre of their national 
 hopes, — the promise, I mean, of a Deliverer who 
 should be emphatically the woman's Seed. The same 
 conclusion would equally follow from the prophecy 
 of trouble and distress which occupies the eighth 
 chapter, and which, to the best of our knowledge, 
 was not historically fulfilled in the relations be- 
 tween Ahaz and the King of Assyria ; and we can 
 scarcely imagine Isaiah recording it at a period when 
 those relations had entirely passed away, except for 
 the sake of a more true, because a more spiritual in- 
 terpretation, the description of the misery of the 
 times when men are hard bestead because they have 
 no Saviour. 
 
 But leaving now these general considerations, we 
 will proceed to shew that the Immanuel was the Mes- 
 siah, and was so intended by the Prophet, from the 
 direct consideration of the prophecy itself. For it 
 was spoken at a time of danger, when a powerful 
 confederacy was in arms to overthrow the house of 
 David, and to put the son of Tabeal upon the Jewish 
 throne; and Ahaz, still young and of an irresolute 
 character, instead of trusting to the promises made by 
 God to his house, followed a policy more dangerous 
 than the confederacy itself. For rejecting the primary 
 principles of the Theocratic government, which had 
 the promise of special intervention in the time of 
 danger, he turned to the King of Assyria for help. 
 It is remarkable with how true a foresight the pro- 
 phets always dissuaded from foreign intervention; 
 
ISAIAH MEETS THE KING AT THE CONDUIT. 1 9 
 
 with, what an enlightened judgment they bade the 
 people look neither to Egypt, nor Babylon, nor As- 
 syria, but remain apart from the leagues and con- 
 federacies of those troubled times ; and when invasion 
 and conquest befell, how wisely they counselled sub- 
 mission, until the appointed times of restoration came. 
 And never was counsel wiser than the policy of Isaiah 
 here ; for so long as the border states of Samaria and 
 Damascus existed, they separated the rugged hills of 
 Juda?a from the great military empires upon the Tigris 
 and Euphrates : and while with these neighbouring 
 states it could cope, its fall was certain when it had 
 to contend with Nineveh and Babylon. 
 
 To resist the King's weak policy Isaiah was ordered 
 to take with him his elder son, Shear- Jashub, — whose 
 very name, ' a remnant shall return,' was a sign that 
 Judah could never utterly perish, — and announce to 
 Ahaz the certainty of the immediate overthrow of his 
 enemies. 
 
 Now mark the place where Isaiah is commanded to 
 meet him. It was at the conduit of the upper pool : 
 on the north-eastern side, therefore, of Jerusalem, where 
 alone the walls gave a besieging army the prospect of 
 success ; and Ahaz had probably gone there with his 
 officers to inspect the walls, and take measures for 
 protecting the supply of water, a matter of primary 
 importance in the impending siege. 
 
 And again : it was at the end of the conduit, at the 
 reservoir, at the causeway leading to the open space 
 where the inhabitants of Jerusalem washed their 
 clothes; or, as the Authorized Version renders it, "in 
 
 c2 
 
20 SERMON I. 
 
 the highway of the fuller's field." It was therefore 
 a busy place, n.nd besides the King and his officers, 
 the words of ±saiah would be heard by a crowd of 
 common people. 
 
 The reason of his seeking this busy place plainly 
 was, that King, and princes, and citizens might all 
 hear his words, and be encouraged to look unto God 
 for deliverance. They saw God's Prophet standing in 
 the midst, assuring them that, imminent as seemed the 
 danger, it should pass away almost within the year ; 
 and that, not by human policy, but by God's inter- 
 vention, so that their duty was to have faith in Him 
 and not look to the King of Assyria. 
 
 But the Prophet's words met with only a cold re- 
 ception. More ready to listen to the suggestions of 
 his fears than to the words of divine encouragement, 
 the King turns away ; and Isaiah is commanded by 
 God again to address him, in a manner which would 
 more decisively put his temper of mind to the proof. 
 " Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ; ask it either 
 in the depth, or in the height above. And Ahaz said, 
 I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And 
 he said, Hear ye now, house of David ; Is it a 
 small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary 
 my God also ? Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and 
 bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuol." Now 
 the King's refusal was plainly dictated by his un- 
 willingness to change his course. Had he asked for 
 a sign, and a ign been given him, he must have 
 obeyed the Prophet's counsels. But his conclusions 
 were foregone ; he had sent his embassy to Tiglath- 
 
NO SIGNS GIVEN TO THE UNWILLING. 21 
 
 Pileser with presents ; and weak men are, of all, most 
 afraid of changing their minds. Now to men like 
 Ahaz God gives no sign in the ordinary sense ; it is 
 not the manner of God's dealings to force the unwilling 
 to a hypocritical assent. The gift to man of free-will 
 implies, as a necessary condition, that every man shall 
 be left to the free exercise of it ; and consequently 
 that no one shall be placed under such circumstances 
 that his faith and obedience become involuntary. 
 " God's people must be willing in the day of His 
 power." ]STo miracle, therefore, could be wrought to 
 convince Ahaz without violating the law of God's 
 moral government. When God therefore gave him a 
 sign, it was a veiled sign, which not till centuries 
 afterwards would be clearly understood. For the 
 present it merely suggested a limit, within which 
 the impending danger would pass away : for the 
 future it spake of the Godhead and the Manhood 
 united in One, born of a pure virgin for the salva- 
 tion of man. 
 
 Similarly our Lord both refused and gave a sign to 
 the Jews. Eefused it in the sense in which they pre- 
 sumptuously asked it, as a present miracle, which 
 should force their assent; but gave i: -.em His own 
 sign, His death and resurrection, yet even that am- 
 biguously described as " the sign of the Prophet 
 Jonah." And just as Isaiah's sign was he very hope 
 of Israel, so our Lord's sign is that on which, in 
 all ages, the faith of the Church has chiefly rested ; 
 for that death was the atonement by wLlch sin is for- 
 given, and that resurrection the proof of the Saviour's 
 
22 SERMON T. 
 
 victory, and of the future resurrection of His saints. 
 What Isaiah therefore appealed to was not a miracle 
 to compel a reluctant submission : in the unbeliever his 
 words would find no echo ; they would fall without force 
 or meaning upon his ear. But besides the King there 
 would be many standing there in whom faith was a 
 living power, and in whose minds the Prophet's words 
 would at once call up the thought of Him, for whose 
 coming Israel had so long languished. They would 
 remember that their nation did not exist without a 
 cause, but had a mission to perform; and that until 
 that mission was accomplished, trial might come and 
 chastisement, but never destruction : always " a 
 remnant shall be left." They would remember that 
 in them all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, 
 and that for this promise' sake Abraham had been 
 summoned from his kindred, and his posterity formed 
 into a separate people; that for it David had been 
 taken from the sheepfold, and set upon the throne, 
 and the promise confined to one born of his family. 
 And this promise all knew was that of the coming of 
 a Deliverer, who should emphatically be the woman's 
 seed, and bruise the serpent's head. 
 
 In the Hebrew the sign is not so indefinitely ex- 
 pressed as in the English version ; for it is not a vir- 
 gin, but the virgin " shall conceive and bear a son ;" 
 and though the Messiah was to be a descendant of Abra- 
 ham, and of David's lineage, still it was the settled 
 conviction of the Jewish mind that He was to be the 
 woman's seed. It was this which filled the hearts of 
 all Jewish maidens with hope ; it was this which made 
 
THE WOMAN S SEED. 23 
 
 Jephthah's daughter weep upon the mountains, and not 
 the fear of the sacrificer's knife ; it was to this that 
 Jeremiah appealed when he said, " The Lord hath cre- 
 ated a new thing on the earth, A woman shall com- 
 pass a man." And similarly Micah connects the birth 
 at Ephratah with the woman's seed : — " But thou, 
 Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the 
 thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come 
 forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel; whose 
 goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 
 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that 
 she which travaileth hath brought forth : then the 
 remnant of his brethren shall return unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel." 
 
 These are plain passages, of which few can doubt the 
 application : but Jewish interpreters find the same 
 meaning in expressions where we should look for it in 
 vain, unless we were equally impressed as they were 
 with the national view. Thus, for instance, in Jacob's 
 blessing of the tribes, they render Shiloh — "until 
 Shiloh come," — by "until the woman's offspring come," 
 connecting the root with the word used in Deut. xxviii. 
 57, and there rendered "young one," but more lite- 
 rally in the margin, and probably used to signify the 
 TrjXvyeros, or ' dearest child,' towards whom never- 
 theless the mother's eye would be evil under the fear- 
 ful pressure of long-continued famine. 
 
 And always, when dangers pressed them most, the 
 house of Judah clung most closely to the promise of 
 the Messiah ; and to it. therefore, Isaiah now ap- 
 pealed. There may be, perhaps, in his words some 
 
24 SERMON I. 
 
 slight degree of ambiguity, some slight veiling of his 
 meaning, for such was usually the case with the an- 
 swers of the prophets as to their outer form, yet so 
 as only to arouse the curiosity of the people to pene- 
 trate into their inner meaning : for to the Oriental 
 imagination there is a singular pleasure in reading the 
 dark saying and divining its interpretation. Here, 
 however, the Prophet was alluding to a hope deeply 
 fixed in the popular mind, and few probably would 
 miss the intended inference, that until Messiah came, 
 in vain would Samaria and Damascus be confederate 
 together. For so long as that promise filled the 
 breadth of Immanuel's land, though temporary trou- 
 bles might visit them, yet their national existence was 
 sure to remain unbroken. 
 
 The belief that the Almah might mean a married 
 woman, the wife of Isaiah, the mother of Shear- Jashub, 
 or a second wife, is a folly now abandoned by the most 
 competent Hebrew scholars in Germany itself, in spite 
 of the natural influence there of Gesenius, their great 
 lexicographer and philologist. Nay, even at Tubingen, 
 of whose critics Ewald has said that "the learned 
 follies of Tubingen have justly aroused in all foreign 
 countries a dislike of German knowledge," — even there, 
 their chief Hebraist acknowledges that not only does 
 Almah never mean a married woman, however young, 
 but signifies a virgin with reference to her purity and 
 modesty ; while Bethulah describes her in her civil 
 relation, as still severed and removed from the du- 
 ties of the family, and dwelling in seclusion, iv rols 
 TrapOzvtoaiv. 
 
JEWISH EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH'S ADVENT. 2 5 
 
 It is then of a pure virgin that the Prophet speaks ; 
 and, carried away by the fervour of inspiration, he sees 
 Messiah's birth as already present,— "Behold, the vir- 
 gin has conceived." The very word twice occurs in a 
 similar manner elsewhere in Scripture — of Hagar when 
 she fled from Abraham's house i, and of Tamar k . The 
 passage, therefore, cannot be applied to Mahershalal, 
 as the tenses used in the historical parts of the eighth 
 chapter shew, but must be interpreted according to 
 that established grammatical rule which prevails 
 throughout all the prophetical books, and by which 
 the events not of the immediate but only of the 
 distant future, are described as already past. 
 
 And what hopes would not be called up to the 
 minds of the Jews by the prospect of the speedy 
 coming of their national deliverer ! As the early 
 Christians were supported under grievous trials by 
 the expectation of the immediate return of Christ 
 in glory, and as the Apostles themselves shared in 
 this expectation, even while teaching patience, and 
 reminding the faithful that " a thousand years with 
 God are but as one day," so was it with God's people 
 of old. In all their troubles, the promise of the wo- 
 man's Seed came nearer and nearer to them, and each 
 day they seemed to catch signs of His approach. And 
 probably in none was this expectation more fervent 
 than in the prophets ; and while they knew that God 
 had kept the times and the seasons in His own hand, 
 they yet themselves not merely longed for the times 
 of refreshing for their nation, but nourished the in- 
 1 Gen. xvi. 11. k Gen. xxxviii. 24. 
 
2 6 SERMON I. 
 
 tense hope that those times were near at hand. It was 
 this hope which knit the Jews together at Babylon, 
 and kept them a distinct people, while the ten tribes 
 were lost among the nations into whose lands they 
 were removed. And here also it gave them the 
 strength of mind, in faith in God and with firm self- 
 reliance, to meet and bide the storm of the confederate 
 kings ; while the hearts of the King and his coun- 
 sellors were bowed as the trees of the wood bow be- 
 fore the wind, and could think of no rescue except 
 by the arms of Assyria. 
 
 And seeing thus the Messiah's birth as already 
 present, the Prophet uses it to express a definite 
 length of time within which the league of the con- 
 federate kings would be broken; and the verifi- 
 cation of this promise within the allotted period 
 would be a sufficient sign to King and people that 
 the counsel given by the Prophet came from God. 
 In thus employing it for a temporary as well as for 
 its final purpose, Isaiah was acting according to 
 the established usages of prophecy, by which, down 
 to the very times of the Apostles, and in the New 
 Testament equally with the Old, events present or 
 immediately future form the foreground, behind which 
 lies the permanent but equally certain interpretation. 
 And in this passage any one who has read the great 
 writers of the primitive Church well knows the use 
 which they have made of this prophecy; how, 
 unencumbered with any thought of Ahaz, they en- 
 large upon the signs of Christ's victory over sin and 
 death, which began while He still lay swaddled in 
 
MEANING OF THE ' BUTTER AND HONEY.' 27 
 
 the manger of Bethlehem; how even to Him they 
 give the name of Mahershalal, as the speedy spoiler 
 of Satan's house, and see in the Magi the first-fruits 
 of the riches of Damascus, — the first-fruits, that is, 
 of the heathen world, " who were brought unto God 
 by the teaching of the heaven, and whose school- 
 master was a star." 
 
 The tense, therefore, which the Prophet uses here 
 is the same as that which he afterwards employs in 
 the magnificent words with which he closes the vision, 
 " Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ;" 
 and as he could not but have known that no son of 
 his could possibly be the Immanuel, the owner of the 
 Holy Land, so equally must he have felt that those 
 titles, " the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father," be- 
 longed not to the pale glories of Hezekiah's chequered 
 reign, but to the style of Him "to Whose light the 
 Gentiles shall come, and kings to the brightness of 
 His rising." 
 
 In the verse which remains to be examined before 
 we can be said to have fairly met the difficulties of 
 the passage, we have again another instance of the 
 manner in which the Prophet interweaves the present 
 with the remote future. We have seen that to his 
 enraptured gaze the Virgin has already conceived ; 
 that the Child is already born, and the term of His 
 undeveloped years fixed as the limit within which 
 Damascus shall be broken. In a similar manner, 
 but in more enigmatic language, Isaiah connects the 
 punishment of Ahaz with the Immanuel' s birth. 
 
28 SERMON I. 
 
 "Butter and honey shall be eat, that he may know 
 to refuse the evil, and choose the good." Now, taking 
 only the general sense of the prophecy, without de- 
 laying at present to consider which of the two trans- 
 lations generally adopted in modern times is the true 
 one, — "when He shall know," or, "until He shall 
 know to refuse the evil," — I may say, that it signifies 
 a period of desolation. By some confusion, probably, 
 with the phrase, " a land flowing with milk and honey," 
 the Prophet's words have been taken to imply the 
 restoration of prosperity to Judah : they really sig- 
 nify exactly the reverse. And so in the remaining 
 portion of the chapter, in which Isaiah foretels the 
 punishment of Ahaz for seeking the aid of Assyria 
 in violation of the principles of the Theocratic govern- 
 ment, they are used as the symbol of extreme deso- 
 lation. For, in the terms of the prophecy, the armies 
 of Assyria are to waste the land till agriculture shall 
 cease, and the scattered remnants of the population 
 revert to a nomad life; the hill in happier times a 
 vineyard whereon grew a thousand vines, each valued 
 at a piece of silver, shall become a covert for game ; 
 " with arrows and bows shall men go thither" to hunt 
 the animals lodged among its matted foliage; while 
 the few people left shall depend upon the milk of 
 their cattle and the honey of the wild bees : and so 
 few shall be their number, that in the undisputed 
 enjoyment of the pasture, the man who " shall possess 
 but a young cow, and two sheep, for the abundance 
 of the milk that they shall give, shall eat butter ; 
 fur butter and honey — not corn-bread and wine — shall 
 
DESOLATION OF THE LAND. 29 
 
 every one eat that is left in the land." It is the pic- 
 ture of a settler's life in some fertile but unreclaimed 
 country, surrounded by the rank luxuriance of nature, 
 rich in the produce of his herds, and in the game 
 with which the neighbouring woods supply him ; 
 but where society does not exist, without tillage, 
 without civilization, and without political life : full 
 of hope, it may be, to him who looks forward to the 
 time when his cabin may be the site of a populous 
 city, but miserable and forlorn to one who sees around 
 him the decaying relics of former greatness, and whose 
 tent is pitched amidst the ruins of his country's 
 prosperity. 
 
 Now, as a matter of fact, the invasions of Tiglath- 
 Pileser did not reduce the land to this last stage of 
 desolation; a desolation so complete, that the meta- 
 phor used by the Prophet is probably the strongest 
 ever penned by any writer, " For the Lord shall shave 
 with a hired razor, namely, by them beyond the river, 
 by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the 
 feet;" the last, that is to say, and most worthless, 
 and most out-of-the-way remains of the past pros- 
 perity of Judah. Even the far more disastrous cam- 
 paigns of Nebuchadnezzar, which did reduce the land 
 to abject misery, scarcely reach to the extreme and 
 utter wasting depicted here : so that plainly the Pro- 
 phet's words have a higher reference. For as the 
 deliverance of Ahaz becomes to his gaze the deliver- 
 ance of the human race, as the sign of a local event 
 becomes the sign given to the world in the incar- 
 nation of the Son of God, so the sin of Ahaz typifies 
 
30 SERMON I. 
 
 the sin of the human race. In the consequences of 
 that sin, even Messiah Himself must share ; He, too, 
 partakes of the vinegar and the gall, of human woe, 
 and of the punishment which the justice of God in- 
 flicts upon sin. 
 
 I am aware that the Fathers give a different inter- 
 pretation of the passage, and that they regard it as 
 a proof only of the human nature of the Messiah, 
 who, in Jerome's words, " was no phantom," but in 
 very deed a child, and who, as such, " was fed upon 
 children's food." But butter and honey are not the 
 food of children, and signify here the punishment in- 
 flicted upon unrepented sin. This punishment the 
 Immanuel, as Israel's representative, bears : — "Butter 
 and honey He shall eat," — shall become "a man of 
 sorrows, and acquainted with grief." 
 
 And this is to continue up to the time of His know- 
 ing how to refuse the evil and choose the good, 'wyib ; 
 not always shall He be a suffering Messiah, " wounded 
 for our transgressions," but at length " the government 
 shall be placed upon His shoulder, and of the increase 
 of His government and its peace there shall be no 
 end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, 
 to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with 
 justice from henceforth even for ever." 
 
 In conclusion, there is yet one consideration which 
 may serve to confirm the preceding interpretation; 
 and this is the form and arrangement of the prophecy. 
 For it is plain even to a cursory reader that the four- 
 teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth verses of the seventh 
 
CONCLUSION. 3 1 
 
 chapter form a summary, as it were, of the whole, 
 each part of which is afterwards more fully developed, 
 only with the order so far changed, that the Immanuel's 
 glories form the summit and crowning-point, where 
 the Prophet extols Him as the Child, " Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, the Mighty God." To draw out this 
 parallel is unnecessary, as it requires only a perusal 
 of the passage to perceive it ; only it may be as well 
 to observe, that the two concluding verses of the 
 eighth chapter belong to and must be taken with 
 the first seven verses of the ninth. If so we read 
 them, we shall find in them the misery described in 
 the seventh chapter under the image of the desolation 
 of Judah generalized and spiritualized. We have the 
 picture of men looking upon the earth, "and behold 
 trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and accu- 
 mulated darkness," as Louth renders it ; or rather, 
 darkness driven, close pressed together ; but as they 
 walk onward in this darkness they see a great light ; 
 for the Sun of Righteousness arises upon a world 
 in misery, because of sin, and brings it healing upon 
 His wings. 
 
 And thus, then, both the examination of the pro- 
 phecy as a whole, and also the more exact considera- 
 tion of its several parts, confirm the translation of the 
 Septuagint, that the sign of Israel's deliverance was 
 the birth of a virgin's child. To Christians this is the 
 sole possible interpretation, both because St. Matthew 
 has impressed upon it the stamp of his authority, and 
 because otherwise the taint of impurity would have 
 
3* 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 attached itself to the person of our Lord 1 , and He 
 would have been, not an Immanuel, God and man, — 
 man of the substance of His mother, and God, because 
 " the Holy Ghost came upon her, and the power of the 
 Highest overshadowed her,"— but man only. Not, 
 therefore, without reason have both Jewish contro- 
 versialists, and the rationalists of later times, tried to 
 weaken the force of the Prophet's testimony, because 
 if the miraculous conception of our Lord could be dis- 
 proved, the whole aspect of the Christian religion 
 would be changed, and the Eedeemer become a pat- 
 tern merely for our example, but no longer God 
 manifest in the flesh, the merits of whose death are 
 a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. 
 But, as ever is found to be the case, the religion of 
 Christ survives every attack upon it: in every age 
 men shift their ground of objection, and marshal in 
 array fresh difficulties, or restate the difficulties of 
 former times; and when a few years have passed, 
 their objections and difficulties are looked upon as 
 exploded fallacies, and people wonder how they could 
 have been held by men of sense, and others frightened 
 at their sound. And ever, I believe, the more closely 
 Holy Scripture is searched, the more sure and certain 
 will the basis be found upon which our faith is built ; 
 and though for a time specious arguments may ruffle 
 the surface of the deep current of belief, they will 
 serve finally only to illustrate and establish the truth 
 they were meant to overthrow. 
 
 1 Lev. xii. 2. 
 
SEEMON II. 
 
 Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
 " Unto us a CJiild is born, unto us a Son is given : and the 
 government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The MigJity God, 
 The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace!' 
 
 rpHE consideration of the prophecy of the Immanuel 
 would be incomplete without a closer examination 
 of the passage with which it concludes than was possi- 
 ble in the previous discourse. There is not, however, 
 the same difficulty here as in the defence of the 
 Messianic interpretation of the earlier portion of the 
 prophecy : for modern commentators have there ex- 
 erted their utmost powers in the endeavour to shew 
 that the Immanuel was Isaiah's or Ahaz' son ; and 
 have imagined the circumstances to be so favourable 
 to their efforts as to ensure them an easy victory. 
 Here, on the contrary, there is a very general consent 
 on their part to the belief that the Messiah is the 
 person whom the magnificent words of the Prophet 
 describe; and even those who, like Gesenius, argue 
 that they refer to Hezekiah, yet acknowledge that 
 there are grouped round him hopes and aspirations 
 which belonged to Messiah alone. It is in the Talmud 
 that the idea first appears that Hezekiah was the son 
 in whose birth the Prophet saw the advent of an era 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 SER1T0N II. 
 
 of glory for the Jewish people ; but the reason of this 
 application of the text, so unlike the manner in which 
 generally the traditions of the Jews are so true to 
 the national conviction that the prophets in all similar 
 passages spoke of the Messiah, is to us confirmatory 
 rather than the contrary of the belief that our Lord is 
 the object of Isaiah's words. For their difficulty lay 
 in the phrase "The mighty God." They had har- 
 dened themselves into the settled belief that Messiah 
 was to be a national hero, their Cyrus, and Alexander, 
 who should command their armies, win for them 
 battles, found for them an empire, and establish their 
 supremacy over the hated heathen ; he was to be 
 a man, whose sons should reign in his stead: and 
 therefore the title, " The Mighty God," contradicted 
 their expectations, and in enmity to the Christian 
 interpretation they sought for some other person to 
 whom they might apply the words. It is evident, 
 therefore, that the translation whereby modern com- 
 mentators make this title signify nothing, had not 
 suggested itself to them. For these tell us, that ac- 
 cording to the idiom of the Hebrew language the words 
 may mean only ' a Godlike hero ;' whereas the Jews 
 themselves translated it ' a strong God a ,' and were not 
 aware in their expositions of the possibility of render- 
 ing it in any other way. To the Christian this phrase 
 is the strongest proof that the Prophet was speaking 
 of Christ ; for in Him only has God become incarnate 
 in the flesh : and as he reads the titles whereby the 
 dignity of the child is shadowed forth, he thinks with 
 a Ben Sira, f. 40, ed. Amst. 
 
BUNSEN S VERSION OE THE TEXT. 35 
 
 reverence upon the mystery of the Godhead united 
 with the manhood, whereby Jesus of Nazareth was 
 able to be the Prince of Peace, the Eeconciler of lost 
 man unto a just though merciful God. 
 
 Those commentators who, on the contrary, consider 
 that Hezekiah was the child signified by the Prophet, 
 generally rest their argument upon the possibility of 
 translating Isaiah's words in a manner less forcible 
 than that which seems to be their natural signification. 
 They tell us that they need mean nothing more than 
 " Wonder-Counsellor, Godlike Hero, Booty-distributor, 
 Prince of Peace b ," and that consequently they were 
 but the courtly flattery of the Prophet to the youthful 
 Prince, who being then ten years old, already shewed 
 the promise of that submissiveness to the prophetic 
 school, which made him in after years the very pat- 
 tern of a theocratic king. It does not strike them 
 that these titles so understood become an absurdity ; 
 that it is a contradiction for the prince of peace, who 
 fights neither for safety nor for conquest, to be also 
 a mighty hero, and the divider of spoil. War, in 
 his days, is absolutely to cease. " For the boot of the 
 greaved warrior arming for the battle-cry, and the gar- 
 ment rolled in blood, shall be for burning and for fuel 
 of fire." The tranquillity of the times shall be so deep, 
 so unbroken, that men shall burn their armour and 
 military accoutrements, as useless, — "for of the increase 
 of the peace of his government there shall be no end ;" 
 and yet they tell us that it is a military hero who rules 
 over them, a giant champion, who enriches his fol- 
 b Bunsen, JBibehverJc. 
 
 d2 
 
3« 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 lowers by the spoil gathered by successful inroads 
 upon the neighbouring states ! 
 
 In the youthful Hezekiah there were no traces of 
 this character ; nothing in the boy which could sug- 
 gest the hope of his ever commanding an army in 
 battle, but rather the marks of a gentle and affec- 
 tionate disposition, more ready to follow than to lead, 
 pious and confiding, but with much of the weakness 
 and irresolution of his father Ahaz. There was doubt- 
 less in him much to love, but little of that strength, 
 and firmness, and determination which would have 
 justified even a flatterer at court in addressing to him 
 such titles as these. 
 
 The translation of Gesenius differs considerably from 
 that of Bunsen given above, and is as follows : — 
 " Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty Hero, the eternal 
 Father, the Prince of Peace :" but he considers that 
 by the words, "the eternal Father," nothing more is 
 meant than "the constant, unremitting benefactor of 
 the people." In what way Hezekiah could have jus- 
 tified the expectation that he would prove a mighty 
 hero, he does not say ; for he himself describes him as 
 "a pious prince, devoted to the interests of the theo- 
 cracy, and probably brought up under its influence." 
 As such he suggested hopes not destined to be fulfilled ; 
 or rather, perhaps, he adds, " the Messianic time was 
 a sort of golden age, upon which the prophets were 
 wont to dilate in poetic terms, and which they ever 
 regarded as immediately about to be established, and 
 not unfrcqucntly, therefore, took some living person as 
 the centre round whom they hung their predictions. " 
 
THE PROPHECY INAPPLICABLE TO HEZEKIAH. 37 
 
 But even so, the character of the young prince must 
 already have been sufficiently developed in those warm 
 climates for the Prophet to have known full well 
 what were its chief traits ; nor can we imagine that 
 so powerful a writer, whose words ever so exactly 
 convey his meaning, would apply to him epithets 
 altogether contrary to his real disposition. 
 
 Nor must we forget that the final revision of the 
 prophecy took place at least twenty years later, when 
 Hezekiah had long sat upon the throne, and when the 
 inroads of Shalmaneser upon the northern provinces, 
 and the threatening aspect of Assyria, made it evident 
 that his reign would not be one of peace ; and that he 
 did not himself possess the qualities which would fit 
 him for military enterprises in the field. What won- 
 der if under such circumstances, with so deep a gloom 
 settling round Jerusalem, with the face of things so 
 threatening, and men everywhere so hard bestead, 
 the Prophet turned to the hope of Israel, the promise 
 which was so often their support in trouble, even 
 Messiah's coming, who should be in very deed their 
 " Mighty God." 
 
 But leaving these general considerations, we may 
 remark, that the terms of the prophecy in no respect 
 belong to Hezekiah : for, first, it is difficult to believe 
 that the Prophet could say "Unto us a child is born, 
 unto us a son is given," of one who was then fast arriving 
 at maturity. Hezekiah' s age at the invasion of Pekah 
 is variously estimated at from ten to thirteen years ; 
 at eight years old we read of Josiah, that " he began 
 
38 SERMON II. 
 
 to seek after the God of his father David ;" and in his 
 twelfth year "he began to purge Judah and Jerusa- 
 lem from idolatry." Manasseh, at twelve years old, 
 equally determinately set himself upon working evil. 
 At twelve years old Hezekiah would have been fit to 
 share in the labours of government, it is in the East 
 the age of puberty and marriage ; nor would it have 
 been fitting for Isaiah to use of him at such an age 
 terms of rejoicing fit only for his birth. 
 
 And, next, the countries referred to were not pro- 
 vinces of Hezekiah's kingdom. The great light, of 
 w T hose rising the Prophet speaks, is not for Judah and 
 Jerusalem, but for Zabulon and Naphthali, — regions 
 over which Hezekiah exerted no influence. Had he 
 been thinking of Hezekiah he would have spoken of 
 places where the King's reign had brought some 
 small measure of prosperity: instead of this, it is 
 Galilee of the Gentiles, the border land where Jew 
 and heathen lived in such close contact that the name 
 of Galilsean was a mark of contempt for the Jew of 
 the holy city, and where the invading hordes of As- 
 syria had made the danger so great that the inhabi- 
 tants had the shadow of death ever resting upon them. 
 We know of no possibility whereby Hezekiah could 
 have benefited the distant region beyond Jordan : but 
 it was there that Messiah taught ; by the way of that 
 sea of Tiberias He spake His parables ; in the cities 
 on its coast He dwelt; and the people of Jerusalem 
 were offended at it, and said, "Search and look: for 
 out of Galilee ariscth no prophet." 
 
 Again, the description of the kingdom which this 
 
HERDERS OPINION. - 39 
 
 child shall reign over cannot possibly belong to 
 Hezekiah. It is a kingdom of peace; but Isaiah 
 full well knew that there was but slight chance of 
 peace for his nation. The chief part of the previous 
 portion of the prophecy consists of a most emphatic 
 denunciation of the evils which would be the sure 
 consequence of Ahaz' having tempted the arms of 
 Assyria towards their borders. And in the verses 
 which precede the text, he mentions the comparatively 
 slight affliction of Tiglath-Pilcser's invasion, and the 
 heavier calamity brought upon the country by Shal- 
 maneser. The more wasting inroads of Sennacherib, 
 his full purpose to subdue the land, were public facts 
 which Isaiah could not but have known. And yet he 
 says, " Of the increase of his government and of its 
 peace there shall be no end :" it shall be a constantly 
 augmenting peace ; an ever-growing and eternal rule, 
 which God shall establish with righteousness and 
 judgment for ever. Such terms Isaiah could not 
 possibly have applied to Hezekiah, even as the expres- 
 sion of nattering hopes in his younger years ; much 
 less at a time when the land was wasted by the 
 perpetual inroads of Assyria, and Hezekiah had shewed 
 none of the qualities which would have enabled him 
 to cope with the troubles of his time, except it be 
 that chief one, of an unwavering trust in God. 
 
 And again : as Herder remarks c , " We have here no 
 
 birthday ode, in praise of Hezekiah, or Hezekiah's 
 
 son, but the tale of a king, who bears all the names 
 
 and blessings which belonged to the race of David, 
 
 c Ebr. Po., ii. 437. 
 
40 SERMON II. 
 
 and whose coming shall bring with it the promised 
 golden age of happiness." For in connection with 
 this prophecy must be taken, both such passages as 
 that in the second chapter concerning " the establish- 
 ing of the house of the Lord upon the top of the 
 mountains," and that in the fourth, where we read of 
 "the beauty of the branch of the Lord for them that 
 are escaped of Israel;" and also Psalms such as the 
 seventy- second, in which the reign of the Messiah is 
 described as one of extended and eternal peace. For 
 no exposition can be so unsatisfactory as that which 
 ignores the ideas, and hopes, and feelings of the times 
 when the prophets lived; and it is only by thus 
 isolating passages, by taking them as fragments dis- 
 jointed from the main stream of Jewish thought, that 
 it is possible to imagine that titles such as these 
 meant nothing more than the hope of a successful 
 reign. None -can doubt that the Jews did look for- 
 ward to an era of great glory ; they regarded them- 
 selves truly as God's chosen people, who might be 
 punished for a time, but were sure finally to receive 
 the rich inheritance of His favour. Call it, with 
 Gcsenius, if you will, an ideal golden age, a mistake, 
 a vain expectation; but the fact remains, that the 
 prophets fostered and strengthened among the people 
 this expectation : and granting this, which no one can 
 deny, why must the words of Isaiah be here unnatu- 
 rally forced to lose their meaning ? The prophets did 
 believe in a coming golden age : they did believe that 
 their nation had the promise of a peculiar and em- 
 phatic blessedness ; and that this glorious era would 
 
HEZEKIAH NO TYPE OE CHRIST. 4 1 
 
 be inaugurated by the advent of a great national hero : 
 and if so, to what do these words more naturally apply 
 than to these national hopes ? And possibly tlieir 
 meaning would never have been doubted, had it been 
 simply a Jewish literature whose remains we were 
 studying, which ended with the Jews, and the hopes 
 of which had been rudely crushed with disappointment, 
 as they were really crushed for those who rejected 
 Christ. Another interpretation is sought, because 
 Christians attach to the words a higher and spiritual 
 meaning : a meaning not confined to one nation, but 
 embracing all mankind, and whereby it is no Jewish 
 king, but a universal Saviour, sprung from the lineage 
 of Jewish kings, who is "the Mighty God, the Ever- 
 lasting Father, the Prince of Peace." 
 
 We cannot even grant that the Prophet unites 
 Hezekiah and the Messiah here in one general out- 
 line. The prophets, doubtless, did often start from 
 some present subject, but that they confused the two 
 together, the present and the future, is a very different 
 thing. If, here, Hezekiah is the child who is born 
 unto us, he must also be the Immanuel, the Virgin's 
 child ; but his age forbids. He was on the verge of 
 maturity : the Almah's child was not yet able to 
 discern good and evil ; was not yet two or three years 
 old. But we demand more. If Hezekiah and the 
 Prince of Peace are the same, Hezekiah must be a 
 type of Christ ; the prophecy must be true of him in 
 a lower sense, because he shadowed out what Christ 
 was in a higher sense ; for it is only where persons or 
 things stand thus related that the double sense of 
 
42 SERMON II. 
 
 prophecy is admissible. A prophecy may be partially 
 true of the Jewish Church, and wholly true of the 
 Christian Church, because the one was the type and 
 outline of the other ; and similarly a prophecy might 
 in a partial sense belong to Hezekiah if he were a 
 type of the Messiah. But this would be granting 
 more than they wish : nor does it seem to be the case 
 that Hezekiah did typify Christ. 
 
 Generally, however, commentators of the modern 
 school reject the view taken by Gesenius, that the 
 Prophet mingled with his present subject the hopes 
 of an ideal future. They would ever tie him tightly 
 down to the present, and 'affirm that the tense which 
 he uses, and which speaks of each act as just per- 
 formed, prevents our looking to the future at all for 
 the fulfilment. But this is an erroneous view of the 
 language of the prophets; and the very name given 
 to them in Scripture may help us to a more correct 
 understanding of their office. They are called seers, 
 and their writings visions, — " The vision of Isaiah the 
 son of Anioz." Events therefore passed before their 
 mental eye, and they describe them as such ; as sim- 
 ple facts without the idea of time. A spectacle of- 
 fered to the eye does not carry the notion of time 
 with it : a picture may represent the past", the present, 
 or the future, and we may know this from its acces- 
 sories, by the inference of the judgment, but not by 
 the sight as such. Similarly the visions of the pro- 
 phets are without time : if time is revealed, as in the 
 seventy weeks of Daniel, it becomes itself the object 
 of the vision, — it is itself the idea impressed upon the 
 
PROPHECY NOT CHRONOLOGICAL. 43 
 
 mind, and not an accompaniment of it. But where 
 time is not itself the thing revealed, the facts of reve- 
 lation are not described as in the pages of history, 
 as they are connected with, and follow upon, and 
 grow out of one another ; but are narrated as facts 
 merely, which had been disclosed to the prophets, 
 but which future ages must arrange in their proper 
 place, as one by one they are fulfilled. 
 
 And this accounts for the fact remarked by Lowth, 
 that the temporal are constantly united with the spi- 
 ritual deliverances of the people. So, in the next 
 chapter d , the fall of Assyria suddenly gives way to 
 the description of Messiah's reign. So, in the last 
 twenty-seven chapters, the deliverance of Judah from 
 exile alternates with that of the world from sin and 
 Satan. So with our Lord :. the judgment of God 
 upon Jerusalem, and the escape of the Christian 
 Church, give place to the picture of the last judg- 
 ment, with His people standiug at His right hand. 
 The tenses, therefore, in this present prophecy must 
 follow the general rule of all prophecy : if there is in 
 them anything special and peculiar, let it be marked 
 and fully weighed; but if the birth of the child — " a 
 child is born" — is declared in the sense which pro- 
 phecy always uses, the tense descriptive of the im- 
 mediate past, it is but folly to adduce it as a proof 
 that Isaiah must have been speaking of Hezekiah, 
 because his birth had already taken place. 
 
 The terms, then, of the prophecy are not in them- 
 
 d Isa. x. 33, 34. 
 
44 SERMON II. 
 
 solves such as point to Hezekiah. If he were the per- 
 son meant by the Prophet, we must not only affirm, 
 with Gesenius, that Isaiah's hopes ended in disap- 
 pointment, but we could not account for his making 
 Galilee the scene of the happiness he foretels, nor 
 for his ascribing military qualities to so peaceful a 
 prince. The external grounds therefore fail, which 
 might have given a colourable excuse for applying 
 force to the translation of the titles with which Isaiah 
 invests the new-born child. A forced and unnatural 
 translation is always unsatisfactory, but especially so 
 when it is made only to support a theory. The words 
 literally signify, "They shall call His name 'a "Won- 
 der,' " the verb being put impersonally — "one shall 
 call ;" and the abstract noun, ' wonder,' sbs, being used 
 for the concrete, ' wonderful,' and implying that there 
 should be in Him something marvellous, extraor- 
 dinary, beyond the common order of nature. And 
 next He is a Counsellor, V^J a word which some 
 have imited with the former, as if it signified ' one 
 wonderful in counsel :' but, as Gesenius remarks, this 
 conjunction "is in direct opposition to the usual cha- 
 racter of similar enumerations." Really, counsel marks 
 one of the highest duties of government ; and we even 
 find the counsellor and the king in close juxtaposition. 
 So, for instance, Micah iv. 9, " "Why dost thou cry 
 aloud ? Is there no king in thee ? Is thy counsellor 
 perished ?" And here it fitly describes Him in whom 
 are hidden all the treasures of wisdom, and who is 
 the Teacher and Ruler of His Church as well as its 
 Redeemer. Thus far, however, there is but little 
 
RENDERING OF ' EL GIBBOR.' 45 
 
 dispute: it is the next title which has roused the 
 zeal of controversialists. For Isaiah calls Him a 
 " Mighty God," -fiiaa bs ; and that the words are to be 
 taken together we have the unbiassed judgment, as 
 shewn by the accentuation, of the Masorites,*or rather 
 of the Jewish tradition which they faithfully repre- 
 sent. Now it is remarkable that this very title occurs 
 in the next chapter e : " The remnant shall return 
 ( Shear- Jashub), even the remnant of Jacob, to the 
 Mighty God." How absurd is the rendering of Ge- 
 senius here, "They shall return to the strong hero f !" 
 But not more so than his reasoning ; for he remarks, 
 " One might very well here, in conformity with most 
 ancient versions, render it by ' the Mighty God,' but 
 it is better to take it in both places in the same way s ." 
 In other words, the place where the meaning is cer- 
 tain, must bend to one on the interpretation of which 
 men have thrown doubts ! Still Gesenius does not 
 here obstinately keep to his former view, but frankly 
 says, " The title "1^33 bs above, in chap. ix. 6, sig- 
 nified the Messiah; here it means Jehovah:" and 
 his argument even there is nothing more than the 
 fact, that the word for God, bs, is occasionally used 
 in the Hebrew language in an inferior sense. So, for 
 instance, in Ezek. xxxi. 11, Nebuchadnezzar is called 
 D*ia b*^ " God of the heathen," rendered in our ver- 
 sion " the Mighty One :" but the satire contained in 
 the appellation is evident, and the implied contrast 
 between the heathen who could worship a man, and 
 the Jew who worshipped the God of heaven. Besides, 
 
 e Isa. x. 21. f Thes. sub ^33. b Ad cap. x. 21. 
 
46 SERMON II. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar did claim divine homage from his 
 subjects, and the image which he set up in the plains 
 of Dura was most probably his own. So also in Ezek. 
 xxxii. 21, in similar mockery the dead kings of the 
 heathen nations are spoken of as D"nSaa "»bw, "mighty 
 gods," calling in derision from the grave to the King 
 of Egypt as he descends to join their company. 
 
 The language of Isaiah is not, however, to be judged 
 of by that of Ezekiel, but by his own use of words ; 
 for it would be difficult to find two writers more un- 
 like one another in style than these two prophets. 
 And the fact, therefore, that in the next chapter 
 Isaiah undoubtedly applies this title to Jehovah, has 
 made both Ewald and Hitzig, and even Knobel, trans- 
 late it in the ordinary way ; to say nothing of the 
 numerous German critics who consistently defend the 
 Messianic interpretation. 
 
 Even Gesenius is scarcely really opposed to us. 
 For if in the one chapter the title belongs to Messiah, 
 and in the other to Jehovah, we may well ask, How 
 does it happen that God and the Messiah both share 
 this title? What is this "mighty heroship" which 
 they have in common ? The difficulty is not removed, 
 but evaded : it is but shifted a little. Better say at 
 once, with Hitzig, that it is an Oriental exaggeration ; 
 or with Knobel, that Messiah is so called because the 
 strength of God would be with him in his wars; 
 thus we at least know where we are ; but these weak 
 attempts at lessening the meaning only betray an un- 
 willingness openly to profess a disbelief in the exist- 
 ence of anything supernatural in the Jewish Scrip- 
 
RENDERING OF 'THE EVERLASTING FATHER.' 47 
 
 tures. Assert that the Bible is an ordinary book, and 
 the consideration of its various parts is labour thrown 
 away : we must first settle whether a revelation has 
 been given, — whether inspiration, whatever it be, is 
 a reality ; until then the two parties have no common 
 ground. The believer in revelation neither can nor 
 will treat the Bible as he would Livy or Herodotus ; 
 while he who denies a revelation can have no interest 
 beyond a faint curiosity in discussing the meaning of 
 isolated passages in a work destitute of authority : 
 for if the meaning which he disputes is shewn to be 
 correct, it does but add one to the numerous mistakes 
 and errors which he thinks he has already detected. 
 The value of interpretation lies with those who ac- 
 knowledge the authority of the Scriptures, and are 
 anxious therefore to know their true meaning. 
 
 Another translation has been offered by Ewald, 
 who, while he grants that bw means God, thinks that 
 "1122 bs may mean a " hero-God;" a God of armies, 
 who reveals Himself as a warrior. But Meier has 
 shewn that the idiom of the Hebrew language would 
 in that case require b« lias ; and thus we are driven 
 back to the rendering of the ancient versions, and 
 of the Jews themselves : a translation which would 
 naturally suggest itself to every reader at first sight, 
 and which only an elaborate criticism, bent upon the 
 overthrow of all ancient landmarks, would venture 
 to dispute. 
 
 The next title, " Father of Eternity," though gene- 
 rally accepted, has nevertheless been the object of 
 a similar attack. For the word which is rendered 
 
48 SERMON II. 
 
 1 eternity,' and is so used in places beyond number in 
 Holy Scripture, is of similar form with a very rare 
 noun, thrice found there, and which means 'booty.' 
 The Spanish Jew, therefore, Abravanel, in his po- 
 lemical writings against Christianity, suggested that 
 the words might be rendered ' Father of booty ;' but 
 even so, an idiom had to be appealed to, of unusual 
 occurrence in Hebrew, though not uncommon in Ara- 
 bic, by which ' Father' is used in the sense of possessor. 
 Thus " Father of mercy" means " the merciful ;" and 
 so " Father of eternity" would mean " the eternal," 
 and " Father of booty" the " booty-owner." In this 
 strange perversion of ingenuity Abravanel has found 
 but few followers. It is contemptuously rejected by 
 Gesenius, who denies even that this idiom is admissible 
 in Hebrew, but adopted by Hitzig, and, as we have 
 previously seen, by Bunsen. For the Messiah it is 
 a title absolutely unbefitting : He is " the Prince of 
 Peace." True, He spoils the strong man of his goods, 
 by delivering men from Satan : but this title suggests 
 only a military conqueror, who wastes the lands of 
 his weaker neighbours, that he may enrich his soldiers 
 with the prizes of rapine and pillage. 
 
 In our Lord the whole passage finds a natural and 
 adequate fulfilment. He came unto men hard be- 
 stead for want of a Saviour: His birthplace was 
 at Nazareth, in the tribe of Zabulon ; His dwelling 
 at Capernaum, in the tribe of ETaphthali. Pound the 
 sea of Galilee He wrought His miracles, and taught 
 His parables upon its shores. In the depth of the 
 
CHRIST THE PRINCE OF TEACE. 49 
 
 spiritual degradation of the people lie came to bring 
 life and immortality to light ; to teach a pure morality ; 
 to raise men to a holy life ; to fill them with heavenly 
 desires ; to give them motives strong enough to enable 
 them to live purely, soberly, and righteously, in a 
 world full of temptations. To His birth all Christian 
 nations turn, as to the advent of the one true hope of 
 the world : if God did not then visit His people, there 
 has been no revelation given ; God has not spoken to 
 man, and man still dwells in darkness and in the land 
 of the shadow of death ; for he has nothing left to help 
 him, except the dim and uncertain light of natural 
 religion. But if the Son of God did then become 
 incarnate in the flesh, what difficulty is there in be- 
 lieving that holy men of God were inspired of old by 
 the Holy Ghost, to give from time to time indications 
 of the approach of so miraculous an event ? At that 
 birth commenced an era of peace, — not for worldly 
 men, who refuse to submit to the terms of the great 
 salvation then wrought ; God has not increased their 
 joy ; but for the soul whose sins have been forgiven, 
 and which has been reconciled, by the Saviour's work, 
 to God. It is the soul the yoke of whose burden 
 Christ has broken, the staff laid upon its shoulder, 
 the rod of Satan its oppressor. Were it, however, the 
 case that Christian principles exerted their proper in- 
 fluence upon men, — did they regulate the conduct of 
 states one toward another, then would wars cease. 
 For wars spring out of injustice : the injustice which 
 the law curbs between man and man, is punished in 
 states too powerful for the law by the scourge of war. 
 
50 SERMON II. 
 
 The time may yet come when Christianity shall influ- 
 ence states as now it influences individuals ; and then 
 shall the equipment of the warrior, and his garments 
 rolled in blood, be for burning and for fuel of fire. 
 To this full development of Christian principles the 
 Prophet looked forward, — to a golden age of happiness 
 and peace : and worthily therefore did he conclude 
 his prophecy with the titles of Him who is God and 
 man ; who is in very truth a Miracle, in that in the 
 flesh He was also the invisible God, whom no man 
 hath seen nor can see : who is " the Wisdom of God," 
 the divine Eeason, the Word, by whom all things were 
 made, and without whom a was not any thing made 
 which was made :" who is the Mighty God, God of 
 God, God of one substance with the Father : who is 
 the Everlasting Father, one with the Father, Himself 
 eternal, and the giver to others of everlasting life : 
 who, lastly, is the Prince of Peace, who broke down 
 the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, who 
 filled up the impassable gulf between God and man 
 by being a Mediator, — one with God, by right of His 
 divinity, one with man by sharing our human nature. 
 Lastly, " of the increase of His government, and of its 
 peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David 
 and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
 with judgment and with justice from henceforth even 
 for ever." Hezekiah did not sit on David's throne; 
 at most he had but the two tribes left for Eehoboam ; 
 his was no eternal kingdom ; there was no increasing 
 peace in his troubled times, but ever increasing danger. 
 "The throne of David" means wide- spread dominion; 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 5' 
 
 the Jew saw in it the type of universal empire ; and 
 such shall in due time be the kingdom of Christ. 
 For, quoting this prophecy, the angel Gabriel said to 
 the Blessed Virgin, "Thou shalt bring forth a Son, 
 and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, 
 and shall be called the Son of the Highest : and the 
 Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His 
 father David : and He shall reign over the house of 
 Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be 
 no end." 
 
 e2 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 Isaiah xi. 1, 2. 
 
 " There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and 
 a Branch shall grotv out of his roots : and the Spirit of the 
 Lord shall rest upon Him!' 
 
 T1HE prophecy of which this verse is the central 
 point stands in close parallelism with that of the 
 Immanuel. The same anxieties are pressing upon the 
 Prophet's mind, and he looks to the same hope for 
 consolation. For once again danger is at hand. Then 
 it was the confederate hosts of Samaria and Damascus 
 advancing to besiege the city ; now it is Assyria, 
 which, in opposition to the divine warning, the weak 
 Ahaz had invited to his rescue, and found in it an 
 enemy worse than those who had then threatened his 
 ruin. And ever in the time of danger there was but 
 one solace to which the house of David could look for 
 security and confidence; and that was the certainty 
 that from their line a deliverer would spring, in whom 
 all the promises of God spoken to His people would 
 be accomplished, — from the promise made to Eve, as 
 she stood trembling and abashed to receive her sen- 
 tence, to the last words of David's consolation, that 
 " of the fruit of his body God would set upon his 
 throne." 
 
PUNISHMENT OF AHAZ. $3 
 
 In Jerusalem itself the circumstances were very- 
 different : for the King was now full of faith in God, 
 and submissive to the counsels of the Prophet ; whereas 
 then Ahaz, wavering and irresolute, and eagerly catch- 
 ing at the hope of any earthly deliverance, was yet 
 obstinate in his disobedience and refusal to listen to 
 God's commands : — "Ask thee a sign." " I will not 
 ask a sign." And therefore the Prophet, even while 
 commissioned to assure him of the ultimate safety of his 
 kingdom, nevertheless clearly set before him the punish- 
 ment which his realm must bear, because of his obdu- 
 rate persistence in a wrong and irreligious policy. He 
 reminded him therefore that Jerusalem could not perish; 
 that there was a peculiar promise bound up with it, and 
 especially with his house, which ensured for it the 
 special protection of God's providence. The general 
 prediction of the woman's seed had been limited first 
 to the descendants of Abraham, and then to the family 
 of David, and no word of the Most High could fail. 
 " Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son." 
 But with all this he coupled the sore wasting which 
 should desolate his kingdom. For " butter and honey 
 shall He eat," — the products of a land wild and uncul- 
 tivated ; and instead of the numerous population and 
 careful tillage, which had covered, the most barren 
 rocks with terraces on which grew vines of so choice 
 a sort, that " a thousand vines were valued at a thou- 
 sand silverlings," the people should be too few for 
 the labours of husbandry ; the fields everywhere aban- 
 doned ; and the land, left to a state of nature, should 
 yield the means of subsistence to a few wanderers, so 
 
54 SERMON III. 
 
 scanty in number that from the abundance of grass 
 the man who had a young cow and two sheep should 
 have milk in plenty, — there being none to share with 
 him the pasture ; and honey without stint, from the 
 numerous swarms of wild bees which, undisturbed by 
 man, plied their busy labours amidst solitudes, where 
 thronging multitudes had once pursued the active 
 duties of life. 
 
 But even in her humiliation the land bore a charmed 
 existence. The hope of the world's deliverance was 
 bound up with her narrow fortunes; and therefore, 
 though she sit in darkness, she must see a great light ; 
 and though for a time she dwell in the land of the 
 shadow of death, yet must the sunlight arise upon 
 her : for unto her a child must be born, whose names 
 are the titles of Omnipotence, and " of whose govern- 
 ment there shall be no end." 
 
 As I then shewed, the date of this prophecy in its 
 present form is many years later than the principal 
 historical event embodied in it. For Isaiah, in the 
 first verse of the ninth chapter, alludes to occurrences 
 long subsequent : and there is much which makes it 
 probable that it was several years after Hezekiah 
 came to the throne that it was finally published to the 
 people of Jerusalem in the shape in which we at pre- 
 sent read it, and in which the sign given to Ahaz and 
 the birth of Mahershalal are detailed in an historical 
 narrative, from which the Prophet rises to his magni- 
 ficent prediction of the Messiah as " the Mighty God." 
 ~Nor is this at variance with the ordinary method of 
 God's dealings with mankind, whereby to those who 
 
FAITH OF HEZEKIAH. 55 
 
 have, more is given, while from those who have not, 
 even their little is taken away. To Ahaz God gave 
 at most a sign obscure and hard to understand ; a sign 
 which seemed to be no sign, except to those who were 
 waiting for the consolation of Israel : but to the pious 
 Hezekiah the prophecy is repeated, and its meaning 
 is made plain ; and though the warning still remains, 
 though the land which has withdrawn itself from 
 God's shelter must bear its punishment, yet are such 
 sad thoughts alleviated by the assurance that in His 
 due time Messiah shall be revealed, and that of His 
 peace there shall be no end. 
 
 At the time of the present prophecy danger again 
 threatened Jerusalem. The Assyrian king, elate with 
 conquest, is gathering his hosts ; and his messengers, 
 as they stand upon the city's walls, taunt the weakness 
 of Hezekiah with offers of horses if he can set riders 
 thereon. But the King looks not abroad for help : he 
 spreads the letter before the Lord, and sends to Isaiah 
 to intercede for him. There is, therefore, now no 
 word of reproach ; no thought of blame escapes the 
 Prophet's lips : his business is simply to reassure the 
 hearts of both King* and people, sinking at the great- 
 ness of their danger, and to convey to them the cer- 
 tainty of their escape. 
 
 This also accounts for the striking difference of 
 manner in which Isaiah in the two prophecies ex- 
 presses the same great truth. In both alike it is the 
 Messiah's birth, the Messiah's kingdom, of which he 
 speaks : but in the first prophecy Ahaz was untrue to 
 himself, his kingdom, and his God ; and therefore the 
 
56 SERMON III. 
 
 Prophet's words are those of rebuke and indignation, 
 of wrath and punishment. Even when he comes there 
 to the promise of restoration, when he sets before 
 them the certainty of Messiah's advent, and of their 
 preservation as the necessary consequence, he still 
 describes these their national hopes with a vigour and 
 intenseness commensurate with the energy of his pre- 
 vious threatenings. But here, in this present pro- 
 phecy, all is consolation, and therefore the greater 
 evenness of style and the closer minuteness of de- 
 scription as he enumerates the spiritual qualities of 
 the Euler, the change in the characters of the ruled, 
 and the universality of the Messiah's kingdom. 
 
 The prophecy commences at the fifth verse of the 
 tenth chapter, in which Isaiah apostrophizes Assyria 
 as the rod of God's anger commissioned to punish 
 such nations as by their conduct had exposed them- 
 selves to the divine wrath ; and the remaining verses 
 of that chapter describe the boasting language of its 
 king, elate with the ease and rapidity of his victories, 
 vain of his personal prowess and military skill, and 
 ignorant that he was but an instrument in the hands 
 of the Almighty, and that in due time punishment 
 would with equal certainty overtake his own sins. 
 The Assyrian empire must fall, as Calno and Carche- 
 mish had fallen, but even before then the justice of 
 God would visit Sennacherib himself. In minute de- 
 tail the Prophet next describes his march upon Jeru- 
 salem, enumerating one by one the various places 
 through which he would pass, choosing for him, not 
 
march of Sennacherib's army. 57 
 
 the ordinary beaten route by which peaceful travellers 
 would have journeyed from the frontier to the capital, 
 but one difficult, and easy of defence, had Hezekiah 
 been as able a general in the field as he was good and 
 pious and believing : but the suddenness of the in- 
 road and the bold tactics of Sennacherib paralyzed 
 his efforts : — "They are gone over the passage," ex- 
 claims the Prophet; they have threaded the defile 
 between Micmash and Geba, where a few hardy men 
 might have disputed their way. Too narrow for car- 
 riages, they have left their baggage behind, and press 
 on unencumbered, and are now close at hand. They 
 are within sight of the holy city, and Sennacherib in 
 triumph shakes his hand against the mount of the 
 daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 
 
 Very different opinions have been held as to the 
 route here described ; some thinking that it was the 
 actual road taken by the invading army, while others 
 suppose that it is an ideal march, the work of the 
 imagination only. Those of the modern school who 
 hold that it was the actual route of the Assyrian 
 army, would wish us therefore to believe that the 
 prophecy must have been written after the invasion 
 had taken place a : for it is a canon of their criticism, 
 that whenever a prophecy agrees with the facts of his- 
 tory, no other proof is required that it was written 
 after the facts had occurred. The narrative in chap. 
 xxx vii. is indeed totally irreconcileable with this 
 theory; but we may dismiss its consideration: for 
 the essence of the present prophecy does not lie in 
 8 Hitzig, in he. 
 
58 SERMON III. 
 
 its historical reference to Hezekiah and Sennacherib, 
 but in its application to onr Lord. 
 
 From his narrative of the invasion, the Prophet 
 passes over, by an easy transition, to the future time. 
 For in the last two verses of the tenth chapter he had 
 abruptly concluded his description of the proud king's 
 triumphal progress with his sudden and terrible down- 
 fall. Like some mighty cedar, he is felled in the very 
 hour of his pride. "For, lo ! the Lord, Jehovah of 
 hosts, lops the branches of this mighty tree with ter- 
 rific violence, and the tall growing trees shall be hewn 
 down, and the high trees brought low : yea, He shall 
 cut down the thickets of this forest, the multitudes of 
 this Assyrian host, with iron, and this Lebanon by 
 that mighty angel who in one night smote their camp 
 with death." And from this, by a natural antithesis, 
 rendered plain immediately that we read the eleventh 
 chapter in connection with the tenth, he proceeds to 
 foretell Messiah's advent: — "But a rod shall spring 
 forth from the hewn-down trunk of Jesse, and a 
 sucker from his roots shall bring forth fruit." 
 
 Now from the root of a cedar no sucker ever 
 springs ; when once the axe has laid it low, no tree of 
 that species can live on any longer in a life derived 
 from its own roots : and similarly Assyria falls for 
 ever. Its work is over; and as men search among 
 its ruins they find the records of a past greatness 
 which can never again find a place amidst the things 
 of this world. Great cities, Baghdad and Mosul, may 
 yet rise upon the banks of the Tigris, but in their 
 streets the same lofty-featured race is no more seen, 
 
PROPHECY AGAINST SAMARIA. 59 
 
 whose lineaments are sculptured on the remains of 
 Nineveh. It is not so with the Davidic line ; it has 
 and will have a place throughout all ages in the pre- 
 sent fortunes of the world: for "like the terebinth- 
 tree and the oak, though they be cut down, yet is 
 there substance in them ;" — there is in them, according 
 to the literal meaning of the word, that which will 
 make them stand up " a new stemV In a word, the 
 earthly kingdom of David will pass away ; but in its 
 place must arise the spiritual dominion of Messiah, 
 David's Son. 
 
 Before, however, we proceed to the more exact 
 consideration of the text, it may be useful to say 
 a few words concerning the shorter prediction, placed 
 between the two great prophecies of the Immanuel 
 and the rod of Jesse, and occupying part of the ninth, 
 and four verses of the tenth, chapter. It was spoken 
 against the kingdom of Samaria, and is remarkable 
 for the regularity of its form, as it consists of four 
 odes, of equal length, and each ending with the re- 
 frain, "For all this his anger is not turned away, but 
 his hand is stretched out still." Of these odes, the 
 first rebukes the pride of Samaria ; the second, her ob- 
 duracy under punishment; the third, her anarchy; 
 and the fourth, the injustice of her princes, who under 
 cover of those lawless times had perverted judgment, 
 "taking away the right of the poor, to make widows 
 their prey, and to rob the fatherless." Its date is 
 easy to settle ; for when in the first ode Samaria is 
 b Isa. vi. 13. 
 
60 SERMON III. 
 
 represented as saying, "The bricks are fallen down, 
 but we will build with hewn stones : the sycomores 
 are cut down, but we will change them into cedars," 
 Isaiah certainly refers to the invasion of Tiglath-Pi- 
 leser in B.C. 740. For he inflicted no serious injury 
 upon the land : the buildings indeed which had been 
 commenced must be abandoned under the temporary 
 pressure of his presence, and would fall into ruin ; 
 the sycomores which stood in the line of his army's 
 march would be cut down for fuel ; but, encouraged 
 by his ill success, they would, upon his retreat, re- 
 commence their labours with greater boldness, and in 
 fancied security would plant their lands with choicer 
 trees. 
 
 On the other hand, the anarchy described in the 
 third ode, and the lawlessness in the fourth, must 
 refer to some period during the nine years' struggle 
 for the crown by Hosea after he had murdered Pekah. 
 And as this turbulence had reached its height, and 
 produced general misery, so that "they snatched on 
 the right hand, and were hungry ; and ate on the left 
 hand, and were not satisfied," we may conclude that 
 the prophecy was written two or three years prior to 
 Ilosea's finally gaming the mastery in B.C. 730. 
 
 The arrangement, therefore, of the three prophecies 
 is chronological : the first referring to the time when 
 Samaria was still a powerful military despotism under 
 Pekah ; the second, a warning to her in the years of 
 anarchy which followed that monarch's murder; the 
 .third, a consolation to Jerusalem in her alarm at the 
 impending invasion of Sennacherib, and, therefore, 
 
JERUSALEM TYPE OF THE CHURCH. 6 1 
 
 subsequent by at least ten years to the death of 
 Hosea, and the destruction of Samaria by Shal- 
 maneser. 
 
 And now to turn to the import of the prophecy, we 
 find the same character impressed upon it which marks 
 all prophecy ; for the immediate and temporal deliver- 
 ance is used only as the occasion from which the 
 Prophet rises to future and spiritual blessings. As he 
 advances on his way, he casts behind him the local 
 interests and narrow fortunes of the nation considered 
 in its mere political aspect, that he may the more 
 boldly reach onwards to the earth-wide salvation bound 
 up with the existence of Israel. For Jerusalem has 
 not only her own history ; she is the type also of the 
 Church in the world : and her struggles with Assyria 
 and Babylon were to her what to the Church is the 
 struggle with sin and Satan. And just as hers was 
 but a chequered history, with evil more frequently 
 triumphant than good, and with her promises of happi- 
 ness never fulfilled in the sense in which the people 
 expected them, so is it with the Church. Israel was 
 called to be God's peculiar people ; was protected by a 
 special providence, and ruled by the direct government 
 of God : but her own highest ambition was to be one 
 of the kingdoms of the world. And therefore her 
 existence was a troubled one, with an occasional hour 
 of triumph, but more frequently trodden under foot 
 by those very nations whose character she aped. And 
 so is it with the Church : she also has times when the 
 faith of her sons shines purely and brightly, and the 
 
62 SERMON III. 
 
 blessing of God manifestly rests npon her, because she 
 trusts only in Him. But too often, like her prototype 
 of old, her external aspect too much resembles that of 
 the world : the same objects of desire are sought by 
 her ; her motives are too much those of worldly 
 men ; there is not that marked difference between the 
 history of the Church and the history of a temporal 
 kingdom, which the essential difference between them 
 might lead us to expect. Yet she too, like the tere- 
 binth-tree and the oak, if cut down, has her substance 
 in her, and her mission must last unto the world's 
 end: but she has her "treasure in earthen vessels;" 
 though of God's building, yet men are the instru- 
 ments by which she works. 
 
 In the prophecies we have an example of the man- 
 ner in which the ministers of the Church of old acted 
 toward those who by virtue of the rite of circumcision 
 had been admitted into covenant with God. For the 
 office of the prophet was not so much to foretell the 
 future, as to warn, and guide, and teach those among 
 whom he lived. And thus we find Isaiah ever placing 
 before both king and people the higher objects of 
 their existence. He sees them untrue to their divine 
 mission ; occupied with worldly schemes ; busied about 
 human policy ; wavering between Assyria and Egypt ; 
 seeking their safety in alliances with earthly powers. 
 From all this he calls them away. Their safety is to 
 be found elsewhere. They have been placed by God 
 on earth for a special purpose ; they have a moral as 
 well as an actual existence ; and as long therefore as 
 they fulfil this purpose, so long they are secure. They 
 
OFFICE OF THE PROPHETS. 6$ 
 
 may bo cast down, but cannot be destroyed ; may be 
 perplexed, but not in despair. 
 
 It is this thought which animates the opening words 
 of the prophecy, in which Isaiah addresses Assyria as 
 the rod of God's anger. For thus he at once marks 
 the difference between the two kingdoms. The one 
 has a definite place in the divine economy ; the other 
 is used but for a temporary object. For the moment, 
 therefore, it may triumph ; but it has no mission of 
 its own, no settled final purpose in the world, and 
 therefore no special providence hems it around. But 
 Jerusalem, however unworthy, was the actual centre 
 of the world's history ; and in spite of her feebleness, 
 in spite of her comparative insignificance, she must 
 outlive the far mightier kingdoms of Nineveh and 
 Babylon, and Persia, and Macedon, and Antioch ; for 
 upon her existence depended the accomplishment of 
 God's unchanging counsels. 
 
 The immediate object of the prophets, therefore, was 
 the moral edification of the people. They pointed out 
 to them their covenant relation with God, and their 
 high calling in the world, in order that they might live 
 worthily of their vocation. Earthly hopes had not 
 really been set before them, but spiritual ; they were 
 God's especial people, in whom He would bless all 
 the nations of the earth, and as such, justice, and 
 mercy, and truth ought to be the daily practice of 
 their lives. But in keeping ever in view this distinc- 
 tive feature of Israel's existence, by which they were 
 unlike all other nations, the exhortations of the pro- 
 phets naturally pointed onward to the day when the 
 
64 SERMON III. 
 
 promise made to them would be fulfilled ; and, " moved 
 by the Holy Ghost," they from time to time added 
 such particulars as made the nature of the promised 
 Deliverer stand forth in distincter outline. At first 
 He was "the woman's seed," "the Shiloh," only, and 
 His person and attributes remained untold : by the 
 prophets His life and death, His office and dignity, 
 are so clearly described, that among the many ex- 
 ploded theories of recent times there is one which 
 endeavours to account for the historical character of 
 the Gospels by saying that these supposed facts grew 
 out of the ideas impressed upon the national mind by 
 the writings of the prophets. 
 
 But in opposition to this, a class of objectors, from 
 Grotius downwards, have argued that the connexion 
 of the prophecies with Christianity is unreal ; that as 
 they started with things present, so must their fulfil- 
 ment be sought for in contemporary events. They 
 regard Hezekiah, therefore, as the rod of Jesse, and 
 find in his reign that era of peace, when "they shall 
 not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain." 
 But it is not in this prophecy only that we find Isaiah 
 looking for his consolation in things future ; it is the 
 usual character of all his prophecies. The great 
 thought ever present in his mind is the advent of 
 the Messiah. Like a true patriot, he was, doubtless, 
 anxious for the welfare of his country ; he had too 
 much influence in Hezekiah's counsels to be indif- 
 ferent to the fortunes of a monarch who trusted him 
 so well : but the Messiah's coming, and the founding 
 of His kingdom, was ever the real burden of his tale. 
 
Christ's kingdom within us. 6$ 
 
 Say it was an ideal time, a fancied golden age, a 
 Church of the future, to which he looked forward ; 
 still forward he did look. ISTay, more ; the kingdom of 
 Judah never did answer to his hopes; it never did 
 equal his ideal of the theocratic government. Even 
 in Hezekiah's reign there were powerful factions at 
 court which finally triumphed over Isaiah's influence ; 
 and in spite of Sennacherib's defeat, the general aspect 
 of his time is one of disaster. There was little to 
 comfort him in the present ; and even we, when we 
 read the description of Messiah's kingdom in the 
 eleventh chapter, must own that it is in great part 
 unfulfilled even now. The wolf does not yet lie down 
 with the lamb. The Prophet may accurately describe 
 the tendencies of Christianity ; may describe what the 
 world would be, were Christian principles acted upon ; 
 but they are not generally acted upon ; and possibly 
 the description never will be fulfilled in the actual 
 history of the world, nor was intended so to be, but 
 belongs to the inner life of the individual. In his 
 heart, by the power of grace, evil principles may cease 
 to rage, and Christ's kingdom of peace may begin 
 here upon earth, to be perfected and made eternal in 
 heaven. 
 
 At the commencement, therefore, of the prophecy, 
 Assyria and Sennacherib, Judrea and Hezekiah, have 
 a real place ; but Isaiah rapidly turns from them to 
 the future, and his words belong no more to the 
 present actors, but are for all times and all persons. 
 The overthrow of Sennacherib's army, and the de- 
 liverance of Jerusalem, are really foretold ; but soon 
 
 F 
 
66 SERMON III. 
 
 they fade away into the background, and are symbols 
 at most of the victory begun on Calvary and consum- 
 mated on the morning of the Eesurrection : a victory 
 enacted over again in each era of the world whenever 
 influences hostile to pure religion are overcome, and 
 in the believer's life as step by step the Spirit gains 
 the mastery. It follows, therefore, that the connection 
 between the parts of a prophecy is not one of time, is 
 not. a matter of chronology ; it is the order of cause and 
 effect. Years, nay, cycles of history may pass away 
 before the full effects of the sacrifice of Christ be ac- 
 complished, — before, that is to say, the eleventh chap- 
 ter of Isaiah be completely fulfilled : but the connec- 
 tion is not made thereby less real. For as the seed 
 contains the tree, which yet may require centuries for 
 its development, so is the effect contained in the cause, 
 though cycles of centuries may scarce suffice for its 
 progress to perfection. 
 
 In none, perhaps, of Isaiah's prophecies is this better 
 exemplified than in the present. For while the tenth 
 chapter is mainly historical, it serves but as an intro- 
 duction to the spiritual predictions of the eleventh, in 
 which the historical element disappears. In describ- 
 ing, in the historical portion, the pride of the Assyrian 
 king, Isaiah narrates the conquests of his ancestors in 
 order. Starting from the strong fortress of Circcsium 
 on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and the usual 
 place where the Eoman armies crossed that river in 
 their centuries of struggle with the Parthians, we see 
 them advance to Calno upon the Tigris, the future 
 Ctcsiphon and chief seat of the Parthian empire. 
 
CONQUESTS OF SENNACHERIB. 67 
 
 Master thus of these two rivers, they spread their 
 conquests along the Euphrates to the north-east, and 
 descending the Orontes, take possession of Arpad, the 
 very memory of which has perished, and of Hamath, 
 which, under the name of Epiphania, was subsequently 
 the capital of northern Syria. And having thus 
 skirted the deserts, which form the eastern protec- 
 tion of Palestine, they now bend their course south- 
 ward; and first Damascus, and next Samaria, fall 
 beneath their arms. 
 
 Jerusalem alone remains unsubdued; but Senna- 
 cherib advances to complete the conquests of his fore- 
 fathers. Nor does he doubt of an easy victory : for 
 "he will gather her up as eggs that are left." And 
 as he advances, the Prophet vividly marks his route 
 by the cries and anguish of the villages on his way : 
 to judge by them, his army must have advanced in 
 parallel columns from north to south, through a very 
 difficult country, but where, probably, he would find 
 more abundant supplies than in the beaten route, de- 
 solated, apparently, by previous inroads. He meets 
 with no opposition; even in the narrow defile of 
 Michmash no measures have been taken to check his 
 advance. But when the goal is in sight, when he 
 waves his hand in exultation, a terrible overthrow — 
 not by human means, but by the intervention of God 
 — overtakes him. God Himself hews down the stately 
 cedar-tree. 
 
 But in the eleventh and twelfth chapters the his- 
 torical element disappears. Hezekiah has passed 
 away, and in his stead "a Eod has sprung forth 
 
 f2 
 
68 SERMON III. 
 
 from the hewn-down stem of Jesse." Upon Him 
 the Spirit rests without measure ; His kingdom is one 
 of peace ; at His bidding the fierce animals of prey- 
 change their nature, and dwell in harmony with their 
 former victims. The struggle between nature and 
 man, the struggle between knowledge and ignorance, 
 between vice and virtue, has ceased ; and the whole 
 earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord. Nor is 
 His empire confined to the Jews ; but " the root of 
 Jesse stands also as an ensign to the people, and to it 
 do the Gentiles seek, and His rest has become glo- 
 rious." Judah, meanwhile, has been visited by evils 
 greater than even the most desponding had foreboded 
 in Hezekiah's time; for the doom spoken by Moses 
 has overtaken her, and her children have been " scat- 
 tered among all people, from the one end of the earth 
 even unto the other." But for her also there is a two- 
 fold restoration : for, first, a remnant is gathered, at 
 the first outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost ; and, 
 finally, God assembles as well the outcasts of Israel as 
 the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the 
 earth; and as the reconciliation of earth with God 
 will be then complete, when the Jews everywhere are 
 converted to the faith in Christ, and with them the ■ 
 fulness of the Gentiles has come in, both Jew and 
 Gentile join in the same psalm of praise, — u Unto the 
 Lord, who hath done excellent things;" and, " With 
 joy draw the living waters of the Spirit from the same 
 wells of salvation." 
 
 It is, therefore, now no longer the narrow conflict 
 between Judaea and the Assyrian King which occupies 
 
BIRTH OF CHRIST CONTRARY TO NATURE. 69 
 
 the Prophet's mind ; it is the eternal conflict, old as 
 man, yet ever new, ever recurring, between good and 
 evil. For this battle the ensign is set up ; and not 
 the Jew only, but all mankind, are summoned to range 
 themselves beneath it. That ensign is the Eoot of 
 Jesse Himself: — "For I, if I be lifted up, shall draw 
 all men unto Me." But the Prophet saw it as we 
 Christians see it, not as an abstract conflict between 
 good and evil, but as a personal struggle between 
 Christ and Satan, between the serpent who tempted 
 Eve and the Immanuel. 
 
 And ever the coming forth of this Deliverer is 
 spoken of as something contrary to nature. As the 
 Immanuel, He is described as the Virgin's Child ; and 
 here, as u a Eod which grows out from a hewn-down 
 tree." The house of David must be shorn of all its 
 honours; it must have returned to the same state of 
 private citizenship in which Jesse lived ; its royal dig- 
 nity must have passed away, the national hopes have 
 ceased to centre in it, and its last remains be regarded 
 with indifference, when from its decaying stem the 
 promised Sceptre shall arise, beneath whose sway the 
 spiritual Israel shall dwell safely. 
 
 In the seventeenth chapter of Ezekiel a prophecy 
 occurs, which very closely resembles that of Isaiah in 
 this place. God has just denounced there punishment 
 upon Israel for looking for deliverance to Egypt ; but 
 with punishment is ever mingled mercy. Ezekiel 
 therefore concludes his prophecy with the promise, 
 11 1 will also take of the highest branch of the high 
 cedar, and will set it ; I will crop off from the top of 
 
70 SEEMON III. 
 
 his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon 
 an high mountain and eminent. In the mountain 
 of the height of Israel will I plant it : and it shall 
 bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly 
 cedar. And all the trees of the field shall know 
 that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, 
 have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green 
 tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish." Now it 
 is remarkable how the same general character prevails 
 in all the Messianic prophecies. It is always some- 
 tiring beyond the power of nature ; no power of nature 
 could make a cutting from a cedar-tree take root and 
 grow ;. and God Himself calls attention to the fact : — 
 " I have made the dry tree to flourish." But God 
 does what nature could not do; and similarly the 
 Sceptre springs from David's house, when it is in its 
 deepest decay : — " God hath brought down the high 
 tree, hath exalted the low tree." 
 
 That the word rendered rod in our Authorized Ver- 
 sion does signify a sceptre, we may conclude from its 
 use in the cognate dialects. In Hebrew it is so rare 
 a word that it is found but once besides in the whole 
 of Scripture, in Prov. xiv. 3, — " In the mouth of fools 
 is a rod of pride :" but in the other Semitic dialects 
 it is of constant occurrence, as the staff, the aKyjirTpov, 
 which the sheich, or elder, carries in his hand, and 
 which, in old time, was ever the emblem of power. 
 In the Peschito version the staff which Elisha gave 
 his servant, as the mark that he had a prophetic 
 mission entrusted to him, has this title c ; and long 
 
 c 2 Kings iv. 29. 
 
DERIVATION OF THE WORD RENDERED ' ROD.' 7 1 
 
 afterwards it was the name given to the crozier car- 
 ried by the patriarchs and bishops in the Nestorian 
 Church.*. And, accordingly, the Chaldee paraphrast 
 understands by it here the kingly office, and trans- 
 lates, " A king shall come forth from among the 
 sons of Jesse, and Messiah shall grow up from among 
 his sons' sons." 
 
 The root of the word is not found anywhere in 
 Hebrew, and the derivation given by Gesenius e might 
 seem to militate against this interpretation. But the 
 philological views of Gesenius have been the subject 
 of general animadversion among Oriental scholars in 
 Germany; and in this, as in many other places, he 
 has been shewn to have misunderstood the sources to 
 which he went for information. For the Arabic word 
 which he rightly gives as the root, is said by him to 
 mean 'to bend,' 'be pliant;' really it means 'to be 
 erect,' ' to be raised up.' But in most languages the 
 words expressive of vegetable growth come from roots 
 of this meaning. So in Hebrew, from nbs^ ' to ascend,' 
 comes nl ?y, ' foliage ;' so in Latin, from salio, saltus ; so 
 in English, the spring is that season of the year when 
 vegetation is most active. From the root, then, ' to 
 be erect,' comes the Hebrew word for sapling, the 
 robust young growth which men choose for their 
 staves ; and, again, from its toughness comes the 
 second signification of the verb, ' to bend,' ' be pliant,' 
 like a young shoot f . 
 
 And this rod, or staff, comes forth from a hewn- down 
 
 d Assem., B. 0., iii. pt. ii. 83. 7. ' In his Thesaurus, sub 
 
 voce iton. f Fiirst, Concord. Bill., sub voce. 
 
72, SERMON III. 
 
 stem ; — for such is thp signification of the word ; and, 
 excepting the Septuagint version, its force is exactly 
 preserved in the other Greek translations, which ren- 
 der it by Kop/jto9, ' a log of wood,' from Keipco, ' to cut 
 down.' It, also, is a word of rare occurrence, being 
 found but twice elsewhere in Holy Scripture : first, 
 in Job xiv. 8, where it is used of a stock or stem of a 
 tree lying in the dust, which yet, at the scent of 
 water, will bud and put forth boughs ; and, secondly, 
 in Isaiah xl. 24, — "their stock shall not take root 
 in the earth." The passage in Job is in remark- 
 able conformity with the etymological signification of 
 the word ; for we are expressly told there that it is 
 the trunk of a cut-down tree : — " There is hope of a 
 tree, if it be cut down, that it Avill sprout again, and 
 that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though 
 the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock 
 thereof die in the ground," (really, ' in the dust,' "©23) ; 
 " yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring 
 forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth 
 away." There is a plain antithesis between the fell- 
 ing of a tree and the cutting down of a man by 
 death; the man will never return to life, the tree 
 may; give it water, and both the roots which remain 
 in the earth will send forth suckers, and the trunk 
 lying in the dust will put forth buds, which, fed by 
 its decay, may grow up into mighty trees. 
 
 So also, in Isaiah xl. 24, the Prophet is speaking of 
 the certain destruction which shall overtake the rulers 
 of the earth, whose trust is in idols ; and, in describing 
 the hopelessness of their condition, he uses strong and 
 
BY 'STEM' A FELLED TREE SIGNIFIED. 73 
 
 emphatic terms : — " Yea, they shall not be planted ; 
 yea, they shall not be sown : yea, their stock shall 
 not take root in the % earth." Their state, that is to 
 say, is beyond recovery: they are not young trees 
 planted in the soil, which may take root there, 
 and grow ; they are felled logs, trunks hewn down, 
 which, even if a man were to plant them, could not 
 take root. 
 
 And here, also, the context requires that the word 
 should retain its exact meaning. For in the latter half 
 of the verse " the staff of Jesse" is described as a 
 " sucker which, growing out of his roots shall bring 
 forth fruit." Just, then, as in the passage already 
 quoted from Job, the trunk and roots of the hewn- 
 down tree are distinguished from one another, so is 
 it here. When the destroyer has passed over both, 
 and their glory is gone, the spring-time of a new 
 and better hope visits them. To suppose the tree 
 still standing, while the sucker brings forth fruit, is 
 against reason. What value has the sucker while the 
 tree remains ? What possibility has it of growing 
 while it is shaded, and the nourishment of the roots 
 drawn away by the thick foliage and wide-spread 
 branches of the parent stock ? For the sucker to grow 
 to maturity, and bring forth fruit, the old tree must 
 be gone ; it is by its decay alone that the new tree 
 can find room for its development. And this is in 
 accordance with the established rules of Hebrew pa- 
 rallelism: each sentence must present the same idea, 
 but each must illustrate and define the other. The 
 idea here is that of life springing out of death, 
 
74 SERMON III. 
 
 strength from weakness, vigour from decay. It is 
 the upspringing of a plant out of a dry ground ; the 
 growth of a bough cut from the cedar ; it is God 
 accomplishing His purposes by means in themselves 
 unequal to the task. 
 
 And the fact is in remarkable agreement with the 
 prophecy. At the carrying away into Babylon the 
 lineage of David lost their royal crown and dignity : 
 in the future troubles of the nation no hearts turned 
 to them for encouragement. The priests went back 
 as the rulers of the rebuilt Jerusalem. "When the Greek 
 kings of Antioch wished to wring money from the Jews, 
 it was the high-priesthood which they proposed each 
 year to sell to the highest bidder: when Epiphanes 
 wished to establish heathenism at Jerusalem, it was 
 round the family of the old priest at Modin that the 
 nation rallied; and the high-priesthood, with sove- 
 reign power, was the reward of the bravery of his sons. 
 Meanwhile, the family of David became peasants and 
 handicraftsmen : they were forgotten ; no one thought 
 of them; any pretensions on their part would have 
 met only with ridicule. But the word of prophecy 
 remained firm. It was written, "In that day will 
 I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and 
 close up the breaches thereof:" and in the terms of 
 Isaiah's prediction, From the hewn-down trunk of 
 Jesse the Messiah shall come forth, and upon the 
 ruins of his temporal dominion that spiritual kingdom 
 shall be established which shall last for ever. 
 
 In agreement with this it must be noticed, that it 
 is not David's name which is mentioned, but Jesse's : 
 
PARALLEL BETWEEN DAVID AND CHRIST. 75 
 
 a fact the more remarkable, inasmuch as twice where 
 the prophecy is quoted in the New Testament David's 
 name is substituted for that of his less glorious ances- 
 tor, and our Lord is called " the Eoot and Offspring of 
 David g ." But the use of Jesse's name exactly agrees 
 with the whole purport of the prophecy. When a tree 
 is cut down its glory departs ; and so by the loss of 
 the kingdom David's family returned to the civil con- 
 dition which they held in Jesse's time. It is not 
 from a family of rank and dignity that Messiah is 
 born, but from one following the ordinary occupations 
 of trade and agriculture ; from one that, after hav- 
 ing held a lofty station, has fallen back to its origi- 
 nal meanness. The Bethlehem-Ephratah which once 
 boasted that a race of monarchs had gone forth from 
 her fields, has become again the least among the 
 thousands of Judah, when from her decay the Scion 
 springs forth who shall rule God's people Israel. 
 
 The phrase, moreover, suggests a parallel between 
 David and our Lord. As nothing was apparently 
 more improbable than that the son of the husbandman 
 of Bethlehem would raise Israel from its state of ab- 
 ject weakness to the height of power and dominion, 
 so equally unlikely was it that the son of a carpenter, 
 born in the same town, and of the same lineage, 
 would deliver mankind from their thraldom unto 
 Satan, and admit them into the glorious liberty of 
 the sons of God. But such, nevertheless, was the 
 case. From Jesse, and from Bethlehem, two scep- 
 tres did arise, — the one of earthly power and tem- 
 g Cf. ver. 10. 
 
j6 SERMON III. 
 
 pofal sovereignty, in David; the other of divine and 
 spiritual empire, in Christ. 
 
 Everything, in fact, combines to shew that Heze- 
 kiah cannot be the sceptre here described. For the 
 same conclusion at which we have arrived by the con- 
 sideration of the etymological meaning of the word 
 rendered ' stem,' follows also from the comparison of 
 the commencement of the eleventh chapter with the 
 end of the tenth. For the Assyrian is there compared 
 to a mighty tree, of which the Prophet says, " Behold, 
 the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, shall lop the bough 
 with terror, and the tall growing trees shall be hewn 
 down. . . . But there shall come forth a rod — a sceptre 
 — from the hewn-down trunk of Jesse." Plainly, both 
 royal lineages must fall : the axe which now hews 
 down the haughty Sennacherib will, in its time, also 
 level the house of David with the dust. But the one 
 will perish ; the other will yet again attain to sove- 
 reignty ; for " of David's line shall one sit upon his 
 throue." Or more fully, in the later words of Jere- 
 miah, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
 I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king 
 shall reign and prosper, whose name shall be, Jehovah 
 our Righteousness." 
 
 The prediction that "He shall prosper" is, in 
 Isaiah's prophecy, contained in the last word, " shall 
 bring forth fruit" — " a sucker out of his roots shall 
 bring forth fruit." The Authorized Version indeed 
 renders it " shall grow," but there is no proof of the 
 word ever having this meaning ; while the sense of 
 bringing forth fruit is of frequent occurrence, and is 
 
THE ROD OF JESSE NOT THE VIRGIN. 77 
 
 that required by its etymology. Moreover, the laws 
 of Hebrew parallelism demand that the idea stated in 
 the first member shall be rendered more definite and 
 precise in the second. It does not permit a mere 
 repetition : each portion must contribute something 
 towards the accuracy and exactness of the thought. 
 And so then here there is an advance in the second 
 portion of the Prophet's words. In the first, " a rod 
 springs forth from a hewn-down trunk ;" in the second, 
 we learn that no untimely fate awaits it : it grows 
 unto perfection, and brings forth fruit. The " root out 
 of a dry ground, with no form or comeliness, with no 
 beauty that men should desire Him," is confessed as 
 a " Prophet, mighty in deed and word, before God 
 and all the people." 
 
 The same laws of parallelism forbid our adopting 
 the opinion held by several of the Fathers, that the 
 rod of Jesse was the Virgin Mary, while the Scion 
 from his roots is our Lord. It was not indeed the 
 prevalent view, but it was held by Justin, Jerome, 
 Tertullian, Ambrose, and some others, and probably 
 arose from the simple fact of there being two nouns, 
 each of which they supposed must refer to a dif- 
 ferent person. So before there had been the Almah 
 and the Immanuel ; and in the prediction with which 
 prophecy begins there was the woman and her seed. 
 But in each member of a parallelism the thing spoken 
 of is the same in both : it is twice presented to the 
 view, each time with some distinguishing quality. 
 The rod, then, and the sucker are the same ; but we 
 may also add, that titles similar to these are often 
 
78 SERMON III. 
 
 given to our Lord, but never to the "Virgin. He is 
 the Branch, (na|, Isa. iv. 2 ; Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12 ; 
 Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15); the Eoot, (wip, Isa. xi. 10, 
 liii. 2); the Sucker, (flgfy Isa. liii. 2); and similarly 
 here, the Eod and Scion, (~>£h, ")23). Nor is there in 
 the passage itself any reason for supposing the Virgin 
 to be meant ; so that this interpretation has been gene- 
 rally abandoned in modern times. 
 
 This latter word, however, natser, l scion,' must not 
 be passed over without a more careful consideration. 
 For there can be, I think, little doubt that it was 
 present in St. Matthew's mind when he said, "And 
 He came and dwelt at Nazareth, that it might be ful- 
 filled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be 
 called a Nazarene h ." It is a very old opinion; for 
 Jerome upon this passage says, " The learned Jews 
 consider that the quotation 'He shall be called a 
 Nazarene,' is taken from this place." He himself 
 rejects it, but for a reason so mistaken, that it is 
 scarcely credible how a man of St. Jerome's judgment 
 could have written it. For he confounds Nazarene 
 with Nazarite ; and adds, that Nazarite is spelt with 
 a g, and Natser, Nazareth, with ts. His own words, 
 therefore, disprove his conclusion; and yet he must 
 have been well aware that NafapaiG? is the Greek for 
 Nazarene, whereas the word for Nazarite in the Sep- 
 tuagint is Nagqpeuos and Na&palos. St. Matthew's 
 word occurs again in Acts xxiv. 5, where the Chris- 
 tians are called the sect tcdv Nafapalcov, certainly not 
 of Nazaritcs, but of Nazarenes. So far, moreover, 
 h Mutt. ii. 23. 
 
' natser' not used by other prophets. 79 
 
 from our Lord being a Nazarite, He is actually con- 
 trasted with John the Baptist in this very particular. 
 
 A confusion, moreover, may be plainly traced in 
 the minds of many of the commentators upon this quo- 
 tation in St. Matthew's Gospel, which also would be 
 incredible, were it not for the general ignorance of 
 Hebrew patiently endured by them, under the belief 
 that a knowledge of Greek is sufficient to enable them 
 to understand the idiom of men who habitually spoke 
 and thought in another tongue. For because the 
 word is rendered Branch in the Authorized Version, 
 they conclude that it has some connection with the 
 word so translated in Jeremiah and Zechariah, (rras). 
 It really has none. The word used by these prophets 
 illustrates the general idea attached to the word Nat- 
 zer, but it has not the most remote connexion with 
 the question whether or not St. Matthew saw in this 
 name given to our Lord a covert indication that His 
 birthplace would be Nazareth. 
 
 Even more absurd is the idea that the passage 
 means that our Lord should be despised. No man 
 ought to allow himself to suppose that St. Matthew 
 was capable of writing anything so unmeaning as that 
 "our Lord went and dwelt at Nazareth, that it might 
 be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He 
 shall be called one despised." Why at Nazareth more 
 than at any other town of Galilee ? We know nothing 
 whatsoever to the discredit of Nazareth : there is not 
 a single word said against it in any book ever written 
 that we know of up to the time when our Lord was 
 brought up there. Its name rather leads us to the idea 
 
80 SERMON III. 
 
 that it was superior to most parts of Galilee ; for Jerome 
 says that it signifies "Flos Galikere;" and again, he 
 calls it "Urbs florida." Nathanael's question, "Can 
 any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" amounts to 
 nothing more than that it was a small, out-of-the-way 
 place. With the prophecies before him, that Messiah 
 should be born of the line of David, and at Bethlehem, 
 where David was, how utterly improbable must it 
 have seemed that the Deliverer should come forth from 
 a village far away amid the mountains of Zebulon. 
 
 On the other hand, the name of the place in He- 
 brew was not Nazareth, but Natser — the very word 
 which St. Matthew uses. Nazareth is a Chaldee form : 
 but that educated Jews even in St. Jerome's days 
 called the place Natser follows from his saying that 
 the name of the village signified " the Flower of Ga- 
 lilee ;" the rendering, I may add, of this passage by 
 the Septuagint, avOos e'/c tt]<s pifas avafirjcreTaL, ' a 
 flower shall go up out of its root.' But we are not 
 left to inference ; we have positive proof : for in the 
 Talmud our Lord is styled Ben Natser, a son, an in- 
 habitant, of Nazareth. And again, in the very ancient 
 Hebrew Lexicon, Ariich, we read among the signifi- 
 cations of the word Natser that it means " the ac- 
 cursed Nazarene." 
 
 Even the form of the Greek adjective is owing to 
 dialectic peculiarities. The fondness of the people in 
 many districts of Palestine for the sound o made them 
 substitute it for almost every other vowel. We arc 
 all familiar with the change of Nebuchadnezzar's name 
 into Ncbuchodnosor, in the Apocrypha. Similarly, 
 
NATUEE OF OLD TESTAMENT TESTIMONY. 8 1 
 
 the words used by our Lord, Talitha cumi, in regions 
 more to the East were pronounced Tolitho cum. The 
 name Tabitha in the Acts, is the feminine of Tobias 
 in the Apocrypha ; which is identical, by the way, with 
 the name Zebi, or Hirsch, borne by so many of the 
 Jews in Germany in the present day. So in Syriac, a 
 Christian is called Notsroyo. In St. Matthew, the first 
 a is still retained, but the e has given place to omega, 
 — Nafapcuos K\rj0r)<T€Tai, 'He shall be' — not He 
 shall be called — ' a Nazarcne.' 
 
 If it be objected that this is not the primary mean- 
 ing of Isaiah's prophecy, we answer, first, that the 
 Evangelist probably only meant that there was an 
 allusion to our Lord's birthplace in the Prophet's 
 words ; and the fact bears him out. In any way, it 
 is a thing worthy of observation, that the title here 
 given to the Messiah, in itself an uncommon word, 
 was the actual name of the village where He was 
 brought up. The ordinary word would have been 
 mas, which Isaiah does use a few chapters before, and 
 which alone occurs in Jeremiah and Zechariah. Why 
 does Isaiah here use another ? And that one so sug- 
 gestive of the inference which St. Matthew deduces 
 from it ? But, secondly, it is the manner of Scripture 
 to appeal to these covert allusions. It claims that the 
 Old Testament not only directly bears witness to 
 Christ, and Christian doctrine, but that it is full of 
 analogies which would escape an inattentive reader. 
 I need refer only to one, to the use which St. Paul 
 makes of the name of Hagar 1 . But for so great an 
 1 Gal. iv. 24. 
 
82 SERMON III. 
 
 authority, a modern commentator would hesitate in 
 accepting Sarah's handmaid as a type of Mount Sinai, 
 and of the law given thereon. But the New Testa- 
 ment is full of similar applications of narratives and 
 sayings in the Old, to the doctrines of Christianity ; so 
 that St. Matthew does not stand alone, but, like the 
 other teachers of the new covenant, claims the prin- 
 ciple of this fulness of Scriptural interpretation. 
 
 Again, it is objected that St. Matthew does not 
 refer to any one prophet, but to the prophets gene- 
 rally. But this may have been because the Evange- 
 list was not quoting the exact words of Scripture, but 
 only alluding to it ; and he may have considered that 
 all the words in which the Messiah is called a 
 root, or rod, or branch, or sucker indirectly pointed 
 to the same fact of our Lord being brought up at a 
 place which bore this name. But I may add a sig- 
 nificant fact. Many ancient testimonies affirm that 
 St. Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew, whatever 
 by Hebrew may there be meant. Now in every Ori- 
 ental dialect the allusion would be plain; no one 
 would doubt for a moment that St. Matthew referred 
 to this passage in Isaiah ; and it is found that the 
 plural is of as rare occurrence in the Oriental versions, 
 as the singular is in the Greek manuscripts of the 
 New Testament. The Peschito, the Curetonian Syriac, 
 the Hharkleian Syriac, the JEthiopic, all read " by 
 the prophet." Does not this suggest the idea, that 
 the Greek scribes, not being able to understand the 
 reference, not knowing what prophet was meant, 
 changed the singular into the plural, as if the Evan- 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 83 
 
 gelist himself had had no definite meaning in his 
 quotation ? 
 
 From the person of the Messiah the Prophet pro- 
 ceeds to describe His kingdom. It does not belong to 
 my subject to enter at any length upon this portion 
 of the prophecy : enough to say, that the Spirit rests 
 upon Him " without measure," and fills Him with every 
 high and ennobling gift : — " The spirit of wisdom and 
 understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the 
 spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord." 
 The Prophet does not intend here to enumerate all the 
 qualities of our Lord, but confines himself to such as 
 are required by a ruler. It is the Messiah as King, 
 and not as Priest and Prophet, who is distinguished 
 by these princely attributes; and, accordingly, the 
 Prophet next describes His rule as one of impartial 
 justice : — " With righteousness shall He judge the 
 poor, and reprove (or decide) with equity for the meek 
 of the earth ; and He shall smite the earth with the 
 rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He 
 shall slay the wicked." And as the result of this 
 just rule, He shall finally establish a universal empire 
 of innocence and peace, in which " the wolf shall dwell 
 with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the 
 kid ; the calf also, and the young lion, and the fatling 
 together ; and a little child shall lead them." 
 
 The beauty of the Prophet's imagery infinitely sur- 
 passes the corresponding passages in which the poets 
 of Greece and Rome have described the happiness of 
 the golden age ; but it must be remembered that it is 
 
 g 2 
 
84 SERMON III. 
 
 imagery, and as such to be understood. The view of 
 Hengstenberg and others, who imagine that the nature 
 of the animal creation will be changed, and the world 
 return to a primeval state of perfection, is so contrary 
 to reason as to be scarcely worth refuting. And, be- 
 sides, it depends upon two false hypotheses : the first 
 false in fact, that the animals in the era of paradise 
 did not prey upon one another; the second false in 
 theory, that the animals preying upon one another 
 was inconsistent with the declaration of God, that all 
 His works were very good. There are, in the present 
 day, men who imagine that it is a discovery of modern 
 times that the death of the brute creation was inde- 
 pendent of the fall of Adam : they think that we owe 
 this truth to geology. But in this, as in much be- 
 sides, modern times have done nothing more than re- 
 produce, from a different quarter, old-fashioned truths. 
 We owe to geology a proof of the extreme antiquity 
 of death ; and the value of this proof consists in its 
 resting upon the evidence of facts : but the Fathers 
 who had to meet the Manichsean heresy, and there- 
 fore were obliged to consider that most difficult of all 
 subjects, the nature of evil, came to the same con- 
 clusion from reasonings, and proved that physical death 
 was not an evil, was no defect in creation ; and that 
 Adam had seen death, and knew what it was in others, 
 before God said to him that, if he broke the com- 
 mandment, "dying, he should die." But to this sub- 
 ject I shall revert hereafter ; and shall content myself 
 now with saying that the old exposition of this pas- 
 sage, by such Fathers as Theodore t, is the best, — 
 
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY LIMITED. 85 
 
 " That by the tame and savage animals the Prophet de- 
 scribes the differing dispositions of men. For the wolf 
 signifies a disposition given to rapine, while the lamb 
 is gentle and mild ; the leopard symbolizes cnnning, 
 while the kid is simple and guileless; the lion is 
 pride, the bull boldness, while the calf is humble and 
 timid. And accordingly we see," he adds, " all ranks 
 of men dwelling together in the Church; for em- 
 perors and prefects, generals and common soldiers, 
 artizans, domestics, and even beggars, all share equally 
 at the same sacred table, all hear the same words, and 
 are washed in the same baptismal laver." 
 
 A more complete fulfilment may be reserved for 
 future times ; but, as I have remarked before, the 
 connection of the facts of a prophecy is not one of 
 time, but of cause and effect. And in the death of 
 Christ the prophecy was virtually fulfilled, because 
 a motive was then revealed sufficiently powerful to 
 subdue all the evil passions, and stubborn self-will, 
 and perversity of men. The final destruction of evil 
 requires only the complete establishment of Christian 
 principles : at present they have but a very limited 
 influence; an influence reaching to but a limited 
 number of persons, and more or less partial in every 
 one even of them. "We believe that at some future 
 time the influence of Christianity will be very much 
 greater than it is now, and its extent universal : " For 
 the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as 
 the waters cover the sea." But even then, if the 
 world is to be a state of probation, evil must be pre- 
 sent, and be sufficiently prevalent and powerful to 
 
86 SERMON III. 
 
 make the trial of the Christian's faith a reality. If 
 the world cease to be a state of probation, an order 
 of things so entirely new will have been established, 
 that even the wisest man can say nothing worthy of 
 credit concerning it. Practically, we are concerned 
 with things as they are at present ; and we know that 
 now Christ's kingdom is not universal. Catholic in 
 theory, the Church ever has been a limited commu- 
 nion ; limited in its geographical extent, and, what is 
 far worse, limited in the very partial influence which 
 Christianity has exerted over the mass of professing 
 Christians. But this influence may be very greatly 
 extended : heathen countries may be won for the 
 Cross of Christ ; at home much may be done to re- 
 move the ignorance, the immorality, and the many 
 physical causes which now neutralize the efforts of 
 the Christian minister. The relations between the 
 large employers of labour and their work-people may 
 be based upon something higher than mere com- 
 mercial considerations ; landlords may build dwellings 
 for their labourers, in which health may be possible, 
 and chastity, instead of removing them from their 
 parishes. Even Christian nations may learn to regu- 
 late their actions by the law of justice, instead of the 
 law of might. The possibility of all these, and many 
 more such things, is contained in the death of Christ. 
 The cause is there, though the effect be still delayed : 
 but we hope that the effect will in due time come. 
 And though we must still repeat St. Paul's words, 
 that " the whole creation groaneth together, and tra- 
 vaileth together until now," yet may this misery, and 
 
^NO IMMEDIATE PROSPECT OF A BETTER ERA. 87 
 
 turbulence, and unrest, gradually be lessened, and 
 instead of the ceaseless struggle, the never-ending 
 toil, and the fierce passions of human life, there may- 
 be in it a content and peacefulness which shall pre- 
 figure the better rest of heaven. 
 
 In the case of many individuals it is even so now : 
 many a man whose own heart has been the scene of 
 the wild struggle of contending lusts, has so felt the 
 power of Christ, that a deep peace and tranquil happi- 
 ness have made his Saviour's words to him full of 
 meaning, where He says, "The kingdom of Grod is 
 within you." And probably these words contain a 
 principle which ought never to be forgotten in the 
 consideration of the prophecies concerning the esta- 
 blishment of the Messiah's universal empire of peace. 
 Their best fulfilment is in the individual conscience, 
 as men, one by one, yield themselves to Christ's 
 spirit, and are formed after His likeness : and any 
 general fulfilment is impossible, except by the multi- 
 plication of these individual cases. And in them it is 
 a fulfilment gradually growing more complete in life, 
 but perfected only when their probation is over, and 
 they are called away to enter into the joy of their 
 Lord. 
 
 I have but one more remark to offer ; and that is, 
 that granting that there will be a more adequate 
 fulfilment of the prophecy in the establishment of a 
 better era upon earth than exists at present, the terms 
 of the prediction preclude us from believing that it 
 will bo immediate. For, first, Christianity is to be 
 
88 SERMON III. 
 
 commensurate with the whole world, — "The earth shall 
 be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea." And, secondly, there is to be the 
 second ingathering of the Jews. The first ingather- 
 ing took place at the founding of Christianity ; for 
 the Jews everywhere were its first recipients, and 
 the heathen converts gathered themselves round, and 
 adopted the forms of the Jewish synagogue. The 
 second ingathering, — " from Assyria and Egypt, and 
 from Pathros and Cush and Elam ; and from Shinar 
 and Hamath, and from the isles of the sea," — is that 
 which St. Paul tells us is to happen after the fulness 
 of the Gentiles has come in k ; an ingathering into the 
 Christian Church, and not a restoration to their own 
 land, which would place them upon a different footing 
 from their brethren, who did not harden themselves 
 against the first preaching of the Gospel, and who 
 therefore were everywhere merged into the Christian 
 community. 
 
 "We infer the probability of this great event not 
 taking place until the last ages of the world from 
 St. Paul 1 having connected this prophecy with the 
 destruction of Antichrist. For when he says, " Then 
 shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
 consume with the breath of His mouth, and shall 
 destroy with the brightness of His coming," he is 
 quoting the fourth verse of this chapter of Isaiah. It 
 was, in fact, from the Chaldee paraphrast that St. Paul 
 took his application of the passage ; for by the Wicked 
 the Chaldee does not understand collectively all wicked 
 k Horn. xi. 25. ' 2 Thcss. ii. 8. 
 
CONCLUSION. 89 
 
 men, but the arch-enemy of the Jewish race, who in 
 the latter days shall slay Messiah ben Joseph. His 
 version is as follows : — " He shall smite the guilty 
 upon the earth with the word of His mouth, and with 
 the speech of His lips shall he cause to die the wicked 
 Armillus, ' ' — the waster of the people, epr)ix6\aos. How 
 long the Church of Christ may yet wait for this event 
 we know not, for with God a thousand years are but 
 as one day ; but it is evident that we are living now 
 under that part of the prophecy which speaks of the 
 root of Jesse as being set up as an ensign to the Gen- 
 tiles ; and our business therefore is to gather in the 
 Gentiles by missionary enterprize, and so spread the 
 boundaries of the Saviour's kingdom, and prepare for 
 the day of greater things whenever God may be 
 pleased to vouchsafe it. But above all, we should 
 endeavour ourselves to have the kingdom of Christ 
 established in our own hearts, that our conscience 
 and our lusts being no more at variance, but the flesh 
 subdued to the spirit, we may ourselves enjoy that 
 peace and innocence of which the Prophet speaks, 
 when all that is wild and fierce, and cunning and 
 artful, and proud and violent in us may have its 
 nature changed, and no longer resist those heavenly 
 qualities which are the blessed fruits of the Spirit. 
 
SEBMON IV. 
 
 Isaiah xl. i. 
 
 " Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, sat t/t your God." 
 
 rpHE last twenty- seven chapters of the book of 
 Isaiah form a distinct prophecy, with several re- 
 markable points of difference between it and the 
 earlier series of his writings. In them some historical 
 event had ever roused the Prophet to address words 
 of warning and counsel to his countrymen ; and upon 
 collecting them into one book, he appended as a fit- 
 ting conclusion the historical narratives of the siege 
 of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, of Hezekiah's sickness 
 and recovery, and of the embassy of the Babylonian 
 king. In this, the last and greatest record of his 
 inspired pen, we have one connected whole, occupied 
 entirely with the events of future time, but divided 
 by the occurrence of the same refrain into three equal 
 portions : of which the first treats of the certain over- 
 throw of heathenism by the one true God, the sign 
 and trophy of which should be the deliverance of Israel 
 from Babylon by the arms of Cyrus; in the second 
 we have Israel's return homewards, and the rebuild- 
 ing of Jerusalem, to be the scene of the victory over 
 sin and the deliverance of all mankind from spiritual 
 bondage, wrought no longer by the arms of an earthly 
 conqueror, but by the sufferings of Jehovah's servant ; 
 
STATE OF JI7D2EA HOPELESS. 9 1 
 
 while in the third we have the fruits of the victory in 
 the founding of Christ's universal kingdom, the sanc- 
 tions of which consist not in temporal promises, but in 
 the gift of pardon, — whereby men have peace of con- 
 science, — and the presence of the Spirit, — whereby 
 they can lead a holy life. In its general aspect it is a 
 message of consolation, both directly, and also in the 
 contrast between the helpless idols of the heathen and 
 the one true God. And if, as we believe, this is the 
 last and final work of Isaiah's old age, never did 
 nation stand more in need of comfort; for already 
 that long series of disasters had commenced which 
 ended in the Babylonian exile. Hitherto the Prophet 
 had ever had some present solace to offer them. When 
 Samaria and Damascus girt Jerusalem about with 
 arms, he could foretell the speedy dissolution of the 
 league, and that within a few years both nations 
 should be broken. "When Sennacherib was marching 
 onwards, and his ambassadors mocking their weakness 
 upon their very walls, he was commissioned to declare 
 that the invader should shoot no arrow into the city, 
 nor cast up a mound against it ; for God would hew 
 down the lofty tree with violence, and lay the high- 
 growing trees in the dust. But in both cases it was 
 but a temporary respite, and Isaiah was commanded 
 himself to bear the evil tidings to Hezekiah, that the 
 treasures of Jerusalem must be carried captive to 
 Babylon, and its noblest youth serve there as menials. 
 The piety of individual kings might delay the cala- 
 mity, but the evil was too deeply set, the apostacy 
 from God too general among the Jews, for escape to 
 
92 SERMON IV. 
 
 be possible. Each year the hand of Assyria pressed 
 more heavily upon them; and when Assyria fell, it 
 was but to make way for a more powerful military 
 empire. The last century of Jewish independence 
 was a time of growing misery, with but temporary 
 alleviations; ever increasing troops of marauders de- 
 vastated more and more the country, and made agri- 
 culture almost cease ; the population was thinned and 
 led into captivity; the national independence over- 
 thrown, and their only chance of quiet was in becom- 
 ing tributaries to a foreign power. It is indeed un- 
 certain whether Isaiah lived to see Manasseh carried 
 away captive into Babylon, but he certainly saw 
 troubles thickening upon the land, and knew to what 
 sure end all the presages of his time pointed. There- 
 fore he spake by the Spirit these words of comfort, in 
 which, in brief and general terms, he foretold the resto- 
 ration of his countrymen from captivity, the rebuild- 
 ing of their ruined cities and temple, and the establish- 
 ment of a better covenant between them and God. 
 
 For the consolation offered them is chiefly spiritual. 
 The temporal glories of the nation have passed away. 
 Never again shall king sit on David's throne, clad in 
 the same magnificence of earthly rule. The images of 
 the Prophet are no longer drawn from regal grandeur : 
 it is now a servant of whom he speaks; — coming 
 in such obscurity, that none shall hear His voice in 
 the streets ; in such gentleness, that the bruised reed 
 He will not break ; with so little of earthly splendour 
 and beauty, that none who see Him shall desire Him. 
 It is "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" 
 
LAST W0EK OF ISAIAH S OLD AGE. 93 
 
 and yet in Him there is trne comfort and solace for 
 God's people : for the Prophet weaves aronnd Him 
 such a web of Christian mysteries, and truths, and 
 doctrines, that well might Jerome of old say, that 
 "no longer ought he to be called a prophet, but an 
 evangelist ; for so clearly does he set forth the mys- 
 teries of Christ and His Church, that he seems to 
 be not so much foretelling the future, as narrating 
 the history of the past." 
 
 It is to this latter portion of Isaiah's prophecies that 
 Jerome's words belong ; for it is now no longer Je- 
 rusalem and the temporal fortunes of the house of 
 David which occupy the foremost place in the Pro- 
 phet's mind, but, as though the world had closed 
 behind him, his eye is fixed upon the distant future, 
 and he sees there the sufferings of the Messiah and 
 the establishment of His universal empire. Up to 
 this time local circumstances had always been present 
 to his view. Starting from political events, and gene- 
 rally from some impending calamity, he had raised 
 the drooping spirits of the people by reminding them 
 of the promise of a Saviour bound up with their na- 
 tional existence. But now the Prophet has reached 
 the limit of the age ordinarily allotted to human life, 
 and his eye is dim for the things of time : worn with 
 years, he has withdrawn from the affairs of State, and 
 is no longer, as of old, the trusted counsellor to whom, 
 in all the trying emergencies of his time, the King 
 looks for advice, for support, for consolation. The 
 activity and the cares of life have both ceased ; and 
 whether we consider, as many do, that this final pro- 
 
94 SERMON IV. 
 
 phecy was written in Manasseh's time a , and that the 
 Prophet had lived to witness the overthrow of that 
 picture of the Theocratic government which it had 
 been the labour of his life to establish ; or with 
 others b , that Hezekiah was still alive, but that Shebna c , 
 whose deposition from his office Isaiah prophesies, 
 and the substitution of Eliakim in his place, was ex- 
 ercising over the pious but irresolute King an in- 
 fluence hostile to better things, and that therefore 
 Isaiah no longer took part in the affairs of govern- 
 ment, — however this may be, it is certain that he 
 now takes a wider range, and in more spiritual terms 
 describes the relations between the believing people 
 of God, whether Jew or Gentile, and their Saviour. 
 
 This difference, however, between these two portions 
 of Isaiah's prophecies has led many of the " higher 
 critics" in modern times to dispute the authenticity 
 of these last twenty-seven chapters, and to suppose 
 that they were written at Babylon towards the close 
 of the captivity. Now if this view were confined to 
 such as deny the fact of prophecy, and argue that 
 any clear prediction of an event must be taken as 
 proof sufficient that that event had already hap- 
 pened, it would be superfluous to examine the ques- 
 tion. Discussion is only possible where there is some 
 common ground ; and the question to be debated with 
 those who hold this theory is, whether God did ever 
 speak to men by the prophets in a manner distinct 
 
 a Kleincrt, De Authentia Orac. Jes., capp. xl. — lxvi., pp. 118 — 
 155. b Hiivemick, MnL, ii. 151. 
 
 c Meier, Gesch. der nat. Poet. Lit. der Heartier, p. 315. 
 
THEORY OF A BABYLONIAN ISAIAH. 95 
 
 from that in which He speaks to our hearts by natural 
 religion and our own emotions ; whether, in short, 
 there be any such thing as revelation, and men have 
 at any time spoken not of themselves, but as they 
 were moved directly by the Holy Ghost. But the 
 theory is not merely held by such as say that the oc- 
 currence, for instance, of the name of Cyrus is suf- 
 ficient proof that these chapters were written after 
 the capture of Babylon ; it is adopted also by many 
 who, though the habits of thought by which they are 
 surrounded allow them to deal less reverently with 
 Holy Scripture than is happily usual among us, yet 
 have set themselves to the examination with full 
 honesty of purpose, and hold it as a fairly probable 
 deduction of internal criticism. At one time, indeed, 
 it seemed likely to become the current view abroad ; 
 and the title of "the Babylonian Isaiah," or "the 
 pseudo-Isaiah," still meets us commonly in their theo- 
 logical literature. And though many of the most able 
 writers of Germany have combated the arguments 
 upon which it rests, and conclusively demonstrated 
 their unsoundness, still it is even now sufficiently 
 prevalent, and so often paraded as one of the grandest 
 discoveries of modern days, that it would be unsatis- 
 factory to proceed to the consideration of the contents 
 of these chapters without first stating some reasons 
 which oblige me still to believe that the Book of 
 Isaiah, as it at present stands, is not made up of the 
 works of various authors, but is the genuine produc- 
 tion of one and the same writer. 
 
 The controversy is, in fact, a reproduction, upon 
 
96 SEEMON IV. 
 
 theological ground, of the battle long so fiercely waged 
 respecting the authorship of the noblest of the Grecian 
 poems. But the contest is carried on under by no means 
 equal circumstances. For Homer lived long before 
 the age of written compositions ; and we have his- 
 torical proof of the collection of his rhapsodies having 
 been the work of a time separated by many centuries 
 from the period in which he flourished. His whole 
 history, moreover, is involved in the greatest ob- 
 scurity, — so that there was little of external evidence 
 to stand in the way of the new theories. Isaiah, on 
 the contrary, belonged to a class of men well versed 
 in the arts of writing, and was himself the author of 
 several histories besides his book of prophecies. There 
 existed, moreover, a peculiar institution in the schools 
 of the prophets, fitted to ensure the preservation of the 
 works of their leading men. We find, too, subsequent 
 prophets quoting or alluding to Isaiah's words ; and in 
 one of the Apocryphal books, but nevertheless a work of 
 considerable authority, we find an enumeration of the 
 contents of his prophecies, in which these later chapters 
 are exactly described. We know, moreover, that at 
 the return from Babylon the custody of the sacred 
 books was entrusted to careful and competent hands, 
 and that one of the chief labours of the Great Syna- 
 gogue consisted in the formation of the sacred canon, 
 which, in its threefold division of the Law, the Psalms, 
 and the Prophets, was read on all solemn occasions, 
 and in course of time every sabbath-day in their syna- 
 gogues. We know that the influence of the prophetic 
 writings was such as entirely to change the character 
 
SIMILARITY OF THE TWO ISAIAHS. 97 
 
 of the people, and that this change commenced during 
 the Babylonian exile. The external evidence, there- 
 fore, for the genuineness of Isaiah's writings is very- 
 strong, and could be overcome only by internal evi- 
 dence of the most convincing kind. 
 
 The imitative character, however, of the human 
 mind made it certain that the Homeric controversy 
 would have its counterpart on holy ground, and cer- 
 tainly in one respect no book of Scripture could so 
 justly claim the right of being the object of this 
 attack as Isaiah's prophecies. For in them Hebrew 
 literature reached its highest excellence : so that had 
 we no personal interest in the Prophet's words, even 
 did they not speak to us of our highest hopes, they 
 would still demand our attention from the beauty of 
 the language and the grandeur of the thoughts ; to 
 say nothing of the influence which they exercised 
 upon the minds of the people, whom they entirely 
 weaned from idolatry, and filled with an ardent long- 
 ing for the day of their deliverer's approach. 
 
 To believe in two Isaiahs springing from the same 
 people in so short a period of time, requires, to say the 
 least, no ordinary amount of credulity. But when we 
 find that their genius takes so entirely the same direc- 
 tion ; that they are both so equally imbued with the 
 same theocratic maxims of government ; that both have 
 for their centre so completely the same one thought ; 
 that both alike dwell upon the same images, use the 
 same words, and attain to the same perfectness of 
 language ; that the beauties of style in both, or, if 
 you will, the defects, are the same, the same love of 
 
 H 
 
98 SERMON IV. 
 
 antithesis, the same fondness for paronomasia, and 
 playing upon words; above all, that the second, the 
 imitator, is so thoroughly the summing up and per- 
 fection of the first, and superior, if possible, to him 
 in beauty' 1 , — to believe this requires more than cre- 
 dulity ; it is a thing absolutely incredible, — even 
 more so than that there could have been a race of 
 Homers, each offering his patchwork contribution, 
 but all combining in one harmonious and consistent 
 whole. 
 
 Had these prophecies been written at the close of 
 the Babylonian exile, how could the author have es- 
 caped that debasing influence upon the national litera- 
 ture which everywhere else we see so strongly exer- 
 cised. Already the later prophecies of Jeremiah are 
 full of Chaldeeisms; in Ezekiel the whole purity of 
 the tongue is gone : and when the people returned 
 to Jerusalem, we know that they could not even un- 
 derstand the language of their ancient poets and seers. 
 "Was it likely that at such a time, one who intended 
 his words for the present consolation of his country- 
 men, would write them in a language which required 
 an interpreter, and with no trace of the idioms in 
 daily use around him ? It is true, that some of the 
 later Psalms composed at Babylon are written in a 
 style of the utmost beauty ; but even in them Chaldee 
 words and modes of spelling are by no means rare. 
 But even were their language as pure as that of the 
 Davidic age, we must remember that the faculty of 
 poetic imitation is comparatively a common one. Nor, 
 d Gcsenius, Einleitung, p. 17. 
 
THE LATER ISAIAH NO IMITATOR. 99 
 
 again, is it surprising that the prophets who wrote 
 after the return to Jerusalem, Haggai, Zechariah, and 
 Malachi, should have imitated, with a certain degree 
 of success, their predecessors in ancient days, and writ- 
 ten more purely than the prophets during the captivity. 
 For naturally, with their restoration to their country 
 the national literature revived also ; and every feeling 
 of patriotism prompted them to produce, to the utmost 
 of their ability, all that was glorious in their nation 
 previously to the exile, and especially the language 
 of their sacred books. But that the second Isaiah, 
 surrounded from his birth with the strange medley 
 of words and phrases which was spoken at Babylon, 
 should have escaped its influence, and been able to 
 write with ease and freedom in a dialect, not merely 
 peculiar to Jerusalem, but in its purity confined there 
 to men of the highest caste, is a thing which exceeds 
 belief. His position is too independent, his genius 
 too great, his preoccupation with one engrossing 
 thought too entire, for him to have trammelled him- 
 self with the difficulties of imitation. Men imitate 
 who are clever, but not great. "When the thought 
 is valueless, they study the manner of saying it. 
 There is no trace in the later Isaiah of such mental 
 weakness : and even if he had stooped to imitate, 
 numerous indications must certainly have remained 
 of the strain to which he had subjected his genius, 
 and have proved beyond doubt the falseness of his 
 claims. 
 
 We must not, however, imagine that the theologians 
 of the "higher criticism" have any unanimity among 
 
 h2 
 
100 SERMON IV. 
 
 themselves in their views, or that they content them- 
 selves with rejecting the last twenty-seven chapters 
 of Isaiah's prophecies. On the contrary, each applies 
 in his own way the same disintegrating process, until, 
 to use the words of one of them e , the name of Isaiah 
 serves only to grace a prophetic anthology, consisting 
 mostly of but fugitive pieces, with but three composi- 
 tions among them of any length, and of these but one 
 really written by Isaiah, while the rest are the con- 
 tributions of nameless and forgotten authors. The 
 genuine writings of Isaiah, says another f , did not fill 
 one roll of parchment ; while to compensate for this, 
 some of the more recent critics g , pressed by the argu- 
 ment that the state of things referred to incidentally 
 in the last twenty-seven chapters was not that which 
 existed during the Babylonian exile, but that of the 
 later years of Hezekiah's reign, have generously re- 
 stored to the true Isaiah all those passages which 
 stood in the way of their theory ; and lastly, not to 
 multiply unnecessarily these instances, Ewald h labours 
 ingeniously to prove that not Babylon but Egypt was 
 the country in which these prophecies were written, 
 grounding his theory upon the facts that Egypt and 
 Ethiopia are frequently spoken of with interest ; that 
 allusions are made to their customs; and that the 
 people of Pelusium are mentioned under their local 
 name of Sinim. 
 
 e Moicr, Oeschichte der Poet. nat. Lit. der Ilehraer, p. 318. 
 f Eichhora, JTebr. Proph., iv. 120. 
 
 e Augusti, Mnl., § 206 ; Ewald, Lie Proph. des alt. Bund., ii. 460. 
 h Ibid , ii. 409. 
 
ATTACK ON EARLIER PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 10 1 
 
 One thing we must indeed grant, that if the last 
 twenty-seven chapters are not genuine, their im- 
 pngners are at least consistent in rejecting much also 
 in the earlier portion of Isaiah's writings. Certainly 
 the thirteenth chapter, and the first twenty-three 
 verses of the fourteenth, are open to exactly the same 
 attack. The Prophet's point of view, as Gesenius and 
 Hitzig argue, belongs to the very end of the Babylo- 
 nian exile, when the Medes were already upon their 
 march. The enemy of Judsea in Isaiah's time was 
 Nineveh ; and Babylon, a subject state, just struggling 
 into independence, was earnestly seeking the alliance 
 of Hezekiah to strengthen its own dangerous posi- 
 tion. What could the Prophet, they ask, know of the 
 Medes, a people who attained to independence only 
 one year (b.c. 714) before the date usually assigned 
 to this prophecy, and who had given little promise of 
 any such warlike qualities as to justify the expecta- 
 tion that they would ever be a match for Assyria? 
 The Arabians, in like manner, are mentioned by no 
 writer until long after Hezekiah's time. These argu- 
 ments are quite as strong as any adduced against the 
 authenticity of Isaiah's final prophecy, and if inspi- 
 ration be denied, it is utterly inconceivable that he 
 should thus have predicted events so unlikely, so un- 
 called for by the state of things in his days, and yet 
 so minutely fulfilled. 
 
 But grant inspiration, and the whole objection dis- 
 appears. The point of view in one moved by the 
 Holy Ghost is not the actual present, but the state of 
 things into which he is removed. He is not indeed 
 
J 02 SERMON IV. 
 
 carried entirely out of his own time, but distant events 
 are impressed upon his mind, and become the ground- 
 work of his predictions. So here, the present time is not 
 absolutely put away, for there is much to connect the 
 prophecy with the date usually assigned to it. In the 
 first place, it was during Isaiah's days that the As- 
 syrians transplanted the Chaldreans from the deserts 
 to dwell in cities, intending to use them for their own 
 protection against the native inhabitants of Babylon. 
 The policy did not prove successful, although the 
 Chaldees always remained distinct from the Babylo- 
 nians; and possibly Isaiah saw in it a confession of 
 weakness on the part of the Ninevite kings. At all 
 events, he notices it in his prophecy against Tyre, 
 and couples with it there the unexpected, yet most 
 true prediction, that these transplanted nomad tribes 
 would be the conquerors of Tyre : — "Behold the land 
 of the Chaldceans ! this people was not till the As- 
 syrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilder- 
 ness : they set up the towers thereof, they raised up 
 the palaces thereof: and he brought it to ruin:" — 
 the Chaldee land brought Tyre to ruin. 
 
 It is true that the Medes attained to independ- 
 ence under Deioces in Isaiah's time ; but a century 
 before they had been a powerful people, and actually 
 helped in overthrowing Nineveh ; and as Shalmaneser 
 had planted captive Israelites in Media, there is no 
 difficulty in supposing that their growing power was 
 well known at Jerusalem. The rapid manner in 
 which political events arc transmitted from mouth to 
 mouth in countries without regular means of convey- 
 
BABYLON THE PLACE OF EXILE. 103 
 
 ing news, is too well known to surprise us. As for 
 the Arabs, whether the word signifies 'inhabitant of 
 the desert,' or 'inhabitant of the west,' there is no 
 reason for supposing the appellation unknown to Isaiah ; 
 possibly events then may have brought these unchanging 
 desert races into temporary notoriety ; for Herodotus 
 describes Sennacherib as king of the Arabians and 
 Assyrians l ; and Jehoram and Uzziah had both carried 
 on wars with them. The important fact is that Isaiah 
 did foretell that Judsea should be punished ; but not 
 by Assyria, the only dangerous enemy in his days, 
 but by Babylon, where the Assyrians had placed an 
 alien race to check the native inhabitants ; but these, 
 fresh from their tents, with their vigour untamed by 
 city life, were just establishing their independence, 
 and seeking the friendship and alliance of Judaea. 
 Yet he denounces them as the tyrants and oppressors 
 of his country, and predicts their overthrow by the 
 Medes, a race even then partly subject to Assyria, 
 and partly free, but whom one able man was trans- 
 forming from a number of distinct and turbulent 
 tribes into a powerful monarchy. Events were hap- 
 pening to call Isaiah's attention to these countries, 
 but no human foresight could have guessed the great 
 results which were to happen from these remote 
 events. Yet Isaiah was not the only prophet who 
 knew of them : Micah, his contemporary, in a chapter, 
 several verses of which apparently are quoted from 
 Isaiah, was equally well aware that Babylon was the 
 place where the Jews would be carried captive k . And 
 1 Herod, ii. 141. k Micah iv. 10. 
 
104 SERMON IV. 
 
 as Jeremiah in his fiftieth chapter has quoted and 
 imitated Isaiah's words, the prophecy must have been 
 older than his times, and consequently the predictions 
 in it — one of which, as we know, Isaiah publicly de- 
 clared to Ilezekiah upon the visit of Merodach-Bala- 
 dan's ambassadors — are inexplicable, if inspiration be 
 denied. 
 
 This prophecy, therefore, is no source of weakness 
 to the argument respecting the last twenty-seven 
 chapters of the book. On the contrary, even this 
 cursory glance at it may serve to shew that the 
 "higher critics" encounter very serious difficulties in 
 their attempt to assign it to an unknown pen, in 
 direct contradiction to its title, which says that it was 
 written by "Isaiah the son of Amoz." We may 
 return, therefore, to our main subject, and consider 
 next the argument which they endeavour to deduce 
 from a certain difference of style compared with the 
 earlier prophecies. 
 
 It must be granted, then, that in these later chapters 
 there is a difference of style, but we must clearly un- 
 derstand in what it consists. For it is just such a 
 difference as would arise from their being written at 
 a later period of the Prophet's life, and upon a more 
 indefinite subject. It is not inconsistent even with 
 the existence of very considerable similarities of style, 
 as Gesenius himself grants ' ; and in fact the points of 
 resemblance are more real and important, than the 
 contrary. For the difference consists in their being 
 written in a broader and more even and more flowing 
 1 Mnl, p. 16. 
 
STYLE OF THE LATER ISAIAH. 1 05 
 
 current of thought : there are no longer the sharp 
 turns, the sudden contrasts, the abrupt transitions of 
 Isaiah's earlier writings. There is less haste, less 
 vehemence, greater fulness, longer dwelling upon 
 the same idea. But this is exactly what we should 
 expect in the writings of an old man, whose years 
 of activity were passed. So, too, of the subject: 
 always before there was a local event, which gave 
 rise to the prophecy; there was also an immediate 
 purpose to be effected. They were words spoken 
 in times of emergency, when the Prophet's own mind 
 was stirred and agitated, and when he wished to in- 
 fluence and sway the minds of both king and people, 
 and make them adopt a definite course of policy. But 
 in this final prophecy, all this admixture of temporary 
 motives and feelings is swept away. There are, in- 
 deed, from time to time allusions to the state of 
 things in Hezekiah's reign, and to the deejDening 
 troubles of the realm. But those troubles were not 
 destined to be of short duration. They must go on 
 until Jerusalem was in captivity, and the temple in 
 ashes. The consolation, therefore, is given in general 
 terms, such as would support the people under present 
 trials by the prospect of a happiness yet to come, but 
 they are not encouraged to look for any immediate 
 deliverance. It is not themselves, but their Church 
 and nation, which shall once again emerge from among 
 the troubled waters. Even the prophecy of their 
 restoration by Cyrus is couched in enigmatical lan- 
 guage, and more to illustrate the certain victory of 
 the one God over polytheism than as a merely Jewish 
 
106 SERMON IV. 
 
 occurrence. When Sennacherib fell, it was for the 
 sake of Jerusalem : but henceforward it is only as 
 they represent true religion that the Jews possess 
 God's favour. As it triumphs or is oppressed, so 
 their fortunes rise or fall. And beyond is the Mes- 
 siah's kingdom, in which Jew and Gentile share on 
 equal terms. And here perhaps is the most re- 
 markable point of difference. For in describing the 
 national Deliverer, the Prophet no longer dwells 
 upon His more glorious attributes. He no longer 
 pourtrays a golden age of happiness and prosperity ; 
 all the hopes of his nation he crushes with ruthless 
 hand. It is not a conqueror, surrounded by the pomp 
 of war; it is the servant of Jehovah whose humili- 
 ation he reveals, and that He shall save His people 
 by bearing in His own person their guilt and punish- 
 ment. And naturally, his style adapts itself to his 
 subject. He was revealing the inmost mysteries of 
 redemption, and consequently his manner is subdued 
 and tranquil. 
 
 There is therefore no antecedent improbability in 
 the view that our present book of Isaiah contains the 
 genuine works of one and the same author. Eemove 
 that great stumbling-block of the " higher criticism," 
 the fact of prediction, and everything is in favour of 
 its authenticity. But if a prediction verified proves 
 that it was written after the event, we cannot stop at 
 the rejection of these twenty-seven chapters. The 
 conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, of Tyre 
 by the Chaldceans, of Babylon by the Modes, are 
 quite as startling predictions as the summoning of 
 
QUOTATIONS FROM LATTER PORTION OF ISAIAH, 107 
 
 Cyrus by name to restore the Jews. We must reject 
 them also, and with them the Prophet Micah, and, in 
 fact, all the prophets. The supernatural element is 
 too closely bound up with the whole of the Bible for 
 us to be able to eliminate it. If one part falls because 
 it is beyond nature, all falls with it. 
 
 Besides these general considerations there are also 
 special arguments, derived partly from external, and 
 partly from internal criticism, which claim an impar- 
 tial examination. 
 
 I have already alluded to the important testimony 
 of the son of Sirach, who in his list of Jewish worthies 
 says of Hezekiah, " that in his days Isaiah saw by an 
 excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last, 
 and he comforted them that mourned in Sion m ." As 
 these latter words plainly refer to the last twenty- 
 seven chapters, we thus learn that the Jews, two 
 hundred years and more before our Lord's birth, 
 regarded the oneness of the authorship as an un- 
 disputed fact. 
 
 The falsification must therefore have taken place 
 so long before as for all traces of it to have dis- 
 appeared. But we find proofs of the existence of this 
 very portion of the book beginning with contemporary 
 times. Nahum quotes it " ; Habakkuk copies from it 
 his description of the unprofitableness of idol worship °, 
 Zephaniah his description of the desolation of Nine- 
 veh 15 ; Jeremiah in no less than six places seems to 
 
 m Ecclus. xlviii. 24. n Nahumi. 15, Isa. lii. 7; Nahumiii. 7, 
 
 Isa. li. 19. ° Hab. ii. 18, 19, Isa. xliv. 9, 10. p Zeph. ii. 15, 
 Isa. xlvii. 8. 
 
Io8 SERMON IV. 
 
 have had these last chapters of Isaiah before his 
 mind q : there are traces even in Ezekiel of a similar 
 knowledge r . Now these passages are just such as 
 would have been the natural result of these twenty- 
 seven chapters of Isaiah being well known to the 
 other prophets; and there are instances of the same 
 kind proving their familiarity with the earlier portion. 
 Probably in the schools of the prophets the works of 
 their most famous seers were the object of continual 
 study, till their minds became imbued with them, and 
 almost unintentionally they reproduced the thoughts 
 of those who had gone before. We may justly, more- 
 over, attribute to these chapters the great change in 
 the national feeling towards idolatry which so marks 
 the people after their return from exile, and which, as 
 it took place during their abode at Babylon, must have 
 been based upon some work of admitted authority. 
 "We can therefore suggest no period when the writings 
 of the false Isaiah could have been assigned to the 
 true. There never was such ignorance or such in- 
 difference regarding the prophets as would have made 
 such a confusion possible, and however ingenious may 
 be the arguments of these critics, who think they can 
 select by subjective evidence what was written by the 
 one and what by the other, they are met on every 
 side by unanswerable difficulties. 
 
 Another external testimony of importance is found 
 in the edict of Cyrus, in which he says, "The Lord 
 
 q Jcr. v. 25, Isa. lix. 2 ; Jer. xii. 1, Isa. lvii. 1 ; Jer. xii. 9, Isa. 
 lvi. 9; Jer. xiii. 16, Isa. lix. 9; Jcr. xiv. 7, Isa. lix. 12; Jer. xlviii. 
 18, Isa. xlvii. 1. r Ezek. xxiii. 10, 41, Isa. lvii. 7 — 9. 
 
MENTION OF CYRUS. I09 
 
 God of heaven hath charged me to build Him a house 
 at Jerusalem which is in Judah s ." In these words, as 
 Josephus informs us*, he was referring to Isaiah's 
 prediction, " That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, 
 and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to 
 Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, 
 Thy foundation shall be laid." Now, if this prediction 
 had been uttered by a prophet living at the end of 
 the captivity, it could scarcely have had any weight 
 in influencing that monarch's decisions : for what so 
 natural as that an oppressed people, living in exile in 
 an enemy's land, should turn with hope to those with 
 whom their oppressors were at war, and give utter- 
 ance to the expectation that they would restore them 
 to their country? The prophecy must have had the 
 weight of time to give it political importance. It 
 must already have been of admitted and notorious 
 authority among the exiles themselves before it could 
 have commanded the obedience of a stranger. It 
 probably even had contributed to the success of his 
 arms ; and the devotion of the Jews to his cause, con- 
 sequent upon their knowledge of his mission, may 
 have been the reason which made him so evidently 
 regard them with favour. 
 
 But it is this very mention of Cyrus, we are told, 
 which forms the great argument against the authen- 
 ticity of these chapters. It certainly shews that if 
 not authentic, the prophecy is a forgery ; for the 
 writer assumes that he is foretelling an event of dis- 
 tant times, and makes it the very proof of the supe- 
 8 Ezra i. 2. l Antiq., xi. 1. 
 
IIO SERMON IV. 
 
 riority of the true God to idols that He could thus 
 predict things future. It is no accident, therefore, 
 that the Jerusalem Isaiah and the Babylonian Isaiah 
 became confused by the carelessness of later times; 
 for in spite of his genius and mental gifts, the latter 
 falsely assumed the character of the former, and stands 
 convicted of a manifest fraud. But the proof is insuffi- 
 cient to prove the charge. For, first, we have a simi- 
 lar prophecy in the case of Josiah foretold by name 
 as the destroyer of Jeroboam's altar, and possibly 
 with an allusion to the meaning of his name Jehovah 
 shall found ; whereas Jeroboam could found nothing: 
 God's works alone remain sure. And, secondly, there 
 is in the prophecy nothing more exjDlicit than in 
 the predictions referred to above, — that Babylon was 
 the destined place of Judsea's exile, that the Medes 
 would destroy Babylon, &c. There is nothing definite 
 in Cyrus but the name. He sweeps before us as the 
 ideal of a great conqueror summoned from the East, 
 before whom the gates of brass and bars of iron are 
 broken asunder. He does not appear, as in the writings 
 of his contemporaries, as Cyrus the Persian. The name 
 itself is an appellative, and signifies the Sun-king. 
 And as many of the Eastern dynasties regarded them- 
 selves as descended from the sun, and the Persian 
 monarchs bore the name generally, it must have been 
 well known to Isaiah ; for the expeditions of the Assy- 
 rian kings, and their constant deportation of races, had 
 greatly increased the general knowledge of those times, 
 especially as regarded Central Asia. There were Medes 
 and Persians even in Sennacherib's army, and from 
 
KNOWLEDGE OF PROPHETS LIMITED. Ill 
 
 this time more than one Persian word occurs in the 
 prophetic writings. The proper name of Cyrus, we 
 are told, was Agradates; and the "remarkable acci- 
 dent," as one of these critics calls it u , or, as we call it, 
 the miracle, the act of an overruling Providence, is, 
 that the appellative should have become the proper 
 name of the particular Persian king who fulfilled the 
 prophecy. As, however, he is seen by the prophetic 
 gaze, there is nothing of that exact knowledge which 
 would have been natural in the days of the exile. 
 The Prophet knows the name of Cyrus, and no more. 
 All is indistinct and general. It is much the same 
 as his knowledge of the Medes and Persians in the 
 thirteenth and twenty-first chapters. And this, we 
 must remember, is the law of prophecy, that God did 
 not give the prophets knowledge beyond their own 
 times. They were commissioned to declare certain 
 events, but they were not removed from the general 
 state of idea and thought current in their own days. 
 And so here, if any one would compare Isaiah's ac- 
 count of Central Asia with that of Ezekiel, he would 
 find that the knowledge of each is in proportion to his 
 own times. It is, then, some mighty hero from the 
 East, "from the rising of the sun," that sun whose 
 name he bore, whose path of victory Isaiah traces 
 in wonderful accordance with the event, but still in 
 riddles which the event must solve. But when they 
 were solved, and the method of the capture of Babylon 
 gave an unexpected meaning to what before seemed 
 but beautiful imagery, — "that saith to the deep, Be 
 u Hitzig, p. 468. 
 
112 SERMON IV. 
 
 dry ; and I will dry up thy rivers," " to open before 
 him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be 
 shut," — it is no wonder that the monarch felt that the 
 prophecy was divine, and willingly obeyed the com- 
 mand " to rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem, and to lay 
 again the foundations of the temple." 
 
 But let us next proceed to some points of internal 
 criticism. And first we may notice that the Prophet 
 always describes himself as being "the first to declare 
 these things ;" as telling things new, unheard before. 
 But how could this be true of one who followed, in- 
 stead of preceding, the more definite predictions of 
 Jeremiah ? How too could he, when mentioning Cyrus 
 by name, speak of it as a thing so marvellous, if 
 already he were threatening Babylon with his arms ? 
 He appeals, moreover, to the result of his former 
 prophecies, — "Behold the former things have come 
 to pass, and new things do I declare : before they 
 spring forth I tell you of them." What more natural 
 if he were referring to Sennacherib's overthrow ? But 
 how under the exile could he describe the impending 
 fall of Babylon as a thing which had not yet sprung 
 forth ? of which, that is to say, there were no indica- 
 tions ? For the growing strength of Media and Persia 
 was plain: already Nineveh, the old capital of the 
 empire, had fallen before them, — and therefore the 
 great care with which Nebuchadnezzar had fortified 
 Babylon. Surely one whose sympathies lay with these 
 revolted states could not describe their final success 
 as a thing of which there were as yet no appearances. 
 
DESOLATION OF JUD.EA. I 1 3 
 
 In fact, so evident is it that no one could thus speak 
 who lived under the exile, that one of the ablest of 
 these critics x acknowledges, u that no other expla- 
 nation of this difficulty appears to him possible except 
 the supposition that the writer assumed the character 
 of an ancient seer:" " Vix alia se offert ratio, nisi ut 
 statuamus, induisse scriptorem, qui sub finem exilii 
 Babylonici vixerit, vatis alicujus veteris personam." 
 
 Again, if the indications of the time when the 
 Prophet lived are thus certain, equally so are those 
 of place. It is true that the land is in a desolate con- 
 dition, but Zion is still the centre of the Prophet's 
 thoughts ; it is still inhabited y , and the walls of 
 Jerusalem still stand z . Now that the land was reduced 
 to an extreme state of desolation in Hezekiah's time 
 admits of easy proof. Though Jerusalem itself escaped 
 from destruction, yet the armies of Sennacherib evi- 
 dently overran every part of the country, and the 
 taunt of Eabshakeh was probably but little exagge- 
 rated, that the King could scarcely have found riders 
 for two thousand horses. What can surpass the de- 
 scription of these ravages given by the Prophet in a 
 chapter the authenticity of which is unchallenged ? 
 "Your country is desolate, your cities burnt with 
 fire : your land, strangers devour it in your presence, 
 and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers." So 
 extreme is the ruin, that " except the Lord of Hosts 
 had left us a very small remnant, we should have been 
 as completely overthrown as Sodom ; as utterly anni- 
 hilated as Gomorrah." Nor did Judsea ever recover 
 
 x Eosenmiiller, iii. 5, 6. y Isa. lxi. 3. z Ibid. Ixii. 6. 
 
 I 
 
IT 4 SERMON IV. 
 
 its prosperity; for even after the short respite of 
 Josiah's reign, Pharaoh Ncchoh could exact of his son 
 only one talent of gold and a hundred talents of silver : 
 and to raise this very small sum "Jehoiakim taxed 
 the land to give the money according to the com- 
 mandment of Pharaoh : he exacted the silver and the 
 gold of the people of the land, of every one according 
 to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh Nechoh." No- 
 thing but the most extreme exhaustion can account 
 for the evident difficulty in raising so slight an 
 amount. In the earlier days of Hezekiah, the tribute 
 he had paid with apparent ease was six times as 
 much, being thirty talents of gold and three hundred 
 talents of silver. Menahem had paid Pul a thousand 
 talents of silver merely to obtain his consent to his 
 assuming the royal name. We must conclude there- 
 fore that all trade had disappeared, and that the 
 people, gaining a precarious subsistence from their 
 fields, were absolutely destitute of money; there was 
 no trade, no buying and selling, and therefore no 
 coin ; and consequently they were unable to meet 
 the slightest taxation. 
 
 It is remarkable how rapidly these troubles are 
 passed over in the Book of Kings. It does not even 
 mention the various" expeditions of the Assyrians 
 against Palestine in Manasseh's time, in one of which 
 that monarch was taken prisoner, when hiding among 
 the thorns outside Jerusalem, and carried captive to 
 Babylon, where apparently he spent the chief part of 
 his life in confinement. Jerusalem was indeed but 
 ".as a booth in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged 
 
JUDiEA UNTILLED FOR TWO YEARS. I 1 5 
 
 city ;" and it needed only some decided action on the 
 part of the Assyrian king to capture it, in spite of 
 the strength of its fortifications and natural position : 
 though these were enough to give it a temporary 
 security as long as Egypt was the main object of 
 the Assyrian attack, or its captains sought nothing 
 more than plunder for their followers. We have even 
 Isaiah's own testimony that the armies of Sennacherib 
 overran the land for two whole years at their pleasure, 
 before the destroying angel smote them with pesti- 
 lence : — " For this shall be a sign unto you, Ye shall 
 eat this year such as groweth of itself; and in the 
 second year that which springeth of the same : and in 
 the third year sow ye and reap." It follows, therefore, 
 that for two whole years after Isaiah had prophesied 
 Sennacherib's final overthrow, without speaking of the 
 previous campaigns, the Assyrians so completely occu- 
 pied the land, that all cultivation on the part of the 
 inhabitants was impossible ; and of the preceding year 
 we have the short but decisive testimony of the Book 
 of Kings, that " in the fourteenth year of the reign of 
 Hezekiah, Sennacherib came up against all the fenced 
 cities of Judah, and took them." 
 
 The picture, therefore, of desolation, and of the 
 ruined cities of Judsea, drawn in these last chapters 
 of Isaiah, is not unsuited to Hezekiah's time; for 
 even the destruction of Sennacherib gave them but a 
 temporary respite, and neither restored the past ravages 
 of the country, nor gave the people any defence against 
 future incursions. Under Manasseh these became so 
 frequent that even the neighbourhood of Jerusalem 
 
 i2 
 
Il6 SERMON IV. 
 
 was a waste. But though in extreme misery, yet 
 Zion must still have existed, when Isaiah wrote, 
 " Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem a ;" " Zion, that 
 bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high moun- 
 tain ; Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up 
 thy voice with strength ; say unto the cities of Judah, 
 Behold your GodM" 
 
 But while the Prophet describes the desolation of 
 the land, he is not historically acquainted with the 
 captivity at Babylon; for summing up the troubles 
 of Judah, he says, " My people went down aforetime 
 into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian op- 
 pressed them without cause." He thus regards the 
 captivity in Egypt, and the ravages of the Assy- 
 rian marauders, as the two greatest calamities which 
 had ever yet happened to the Jews. But though 
 without doubt in each incursion of the Assyrians 
 numerous captives were carried away, — for human 
 beings were the most valuable spoil of ancient war, — 
 yet Isaiah was not aware of any general deportation 
 of the people to Babylon, and consequently could not 
 thus have written at the close of the Babylonian exile. 
 
 Moreover, when Isaiah speaks of Chaldea as the 
 ends of the earth , it is incredible that he could at 
 the very time have been living there himself. His 
 constant reference also to Egypt, his account of its 
 prosperity, how " the labour of Egypt, and the mer- 
 chandise of ^Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of 
 stature," shall be brought to Jerusalem, as its mart d ; 
 
 tt Isa. ad. 2. b Ibid. xl. 9; add xli. 27, xlvi. 13, li. 17—23, 
 
 lxii. 1, &c. c Ibid. xli. 9. d Ibid. xlv. 14. 
 
JEWS GIVEN UP TO IDOLATRY. I 1 7 
 
 his selection of these nations especially, as Judah's 
 ransom 6 , even his choice of many single words, as, 
 for instance, where he speaks of sending to Babylon f , 
 — slight as are these indications in themselves, yet 
 they all combine in leading to the conclusion that 
 Jerusalem, and not Babylon, was the place where the 
 Prophet wrote. 
 
 The next argument drawn from the condition of 
 the people is even more cogent, and its force has been 
 acknowledged by the remarkable fact that it has com- 
 pelled the assailants of the prophecy to the extreme 
 supposition, already alluded to, that there are fragments 
 and remains of true prophecies embedded in these 
 chapters, written, they say, certainly before the exile, 
 and possibly by the true Isaiah. For what is their con- 
 dition ? They are given up to idolatry. Those who 
 are impoverished " choose a tree that will not rot, and 
 out of it they carve an image ;" their richer men 
 " lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the 
 balance, and hire a goldsmith ; and he maketh it a 
 god." — "They remain among the graves, they lodge 
 in the monuments." How could they have practised 
 this in the alluvial plains of Babylon ? These rock- 
 hewn tombs, so common in Palestine, so peculiar to 
 a mountainous country, were alike unknown and im- 
 possible there. — "They eat swine's flesh:" but this 
 was an Egyptian, and not a Babylonian practice, and 
 is one of the passages upon which Ewald depends for 
 proving that Egypt was the place where the prophecy 
 
 c Isa. xliii. 3. f Ibid, xliii. 14. 
 
Il8 SERMOX IV. 
 
 was written. — They have " gardens also in which they 
 sanctify and purify themselves; they inflame them- 
 selves with idols under every green tree, and slay 
 their children in the valleys under the clifts of the 
 rocks :" and the right punctuation of a word, without 
 meaning as it is at present read, refers to the unholy 
 rites which Manasseh certainly practised; "For thou 
 wentest," says the Prophet, " unto Moloch with oint- 
 ment, and didst increase thy perfumes." 
 
 Now we know that the immediate result of the 
 Babylonian captivity was the abolition of idolatry ; 
 and that the horror of the people at these past human 
 sacrifices was so great that the valley of Hinnom 
 became the name for the place of eternal torment. 
 How then could one who wrote at the end of the 
 captivity speak of them as still slaying the children 
 in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks ? Where 
 could they even find these valleys in the vast plains 
 of Babylonia? where the clifts of the rocks in a 
 country where stone is unknown? — "Among the 
 smooth stones of the stream is thy portion." But 
 where among the sluggish canals of Babylon will 
 these commentators find a stream rapid enough to 
 wear the stones in its muddy bed smooth ? Besides, it 
 is not a stream ; for both here, and above, where our 
 version has 'valleys,' the word signifies a nullah — 
 the bed of a mountain torrent, a (j)apaytj as the 
 Septuagint renders it, dry in the summer, but during 
 the winter rains rushing along as a violent flood. 
 In the warm summer months these torrent-beds were 
 places of pleasant resort; and in such a one, in the 
 
MANNER OF PROPHESYING. I I 9 
 
 valley of Hinnom, the wretched people of Jerusalem 
 offered their children unto Moloch. 
 
 There are various other arguments also, all tending 
 to the same conclusion, but they are such as require 
 an examination into words and phrases, and modes of 
 thought and expression too exact and tedious for any- 
 thing except the patient minuteness of a commentary. 
 I will only say, that the number of remarkable words 
 and phrases, and ideas and metaphors common to the 
 two parts of Isaiah, and of rare occurrence, or which 
 absolutely do not occur elsewhere, is almost past 
 belief. But, omitting these, I shall content myself 
 with one more argument drawn from the manner of 
 prophesying. Now had these chapters been of so late 
 date as is affirmed, there would, I think, have been 
 found in them more definite allusions to the state of 
 things then existing, and a more exact adaptation to 
 the wants of the exiles, than we can at present dis- 
 cover. It was this knowledge of their actual circum- 
 stances which made Jeremiah the chief consolation, 
 the especial prophet, of the captivity, while Isaiah is 
 for all times. Even the Babylonian exile is treated 
 by him more as a subsidiary point than as the main 
 subject ; and the deliverance from it passes on so com- 
 pletely into the establishment of Christ's kingdom, 
 that at a certain stage the Prophet loses it altogether 
 from his view. And how unnatural are his pre- 
 dictions ! How entirely are they such as flesh and 
 blood could not have revealed unto him ! In a 
 word, how truly they are spiritual I What eye not 
 inspired could so have seen the humiliation of the pro- 
 
I20 SERMON IV. 
 
 raised Messiah ? What human mind would have ven- 
 tured to describe their national hero as giving His 
 back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that 
 plucked off the hair ? As being more marred in visage 
 than any man, and His form more than the sons of 
 men ? As one stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted ? 
 
 Both matter, then, and manner equally point to the 
 Isaiah of Hezekiah's time as the author of these 
 chapters ; and so really does the language. For 
 though the style is softer and gentler, it is still the 
 same. There is the same fondness for alliteration, 
 carried to an extent which modern rules of writing 
 would forbid. There is the same repetition of a word 
 in both parts of a parallelism, constantly avoided in 
 the Authorized Version by the substitution for one of 
 them of a synonym, because I suppose it was thought 
 that the occurrence twice of the same sound would 
 offend modern ears. There are the same powerful and 
 striking metaphors, as that of unveiling being used 
 for degradation ; the same absence of symbolic actions, 
 so common with the other prophets; the same in- 
 frequency of visions, the same constant use of hymns 
 of praise. In both j)arts alike the prophecies are de- 
 livered with no introduction, no declaration of " Thus 
 saith the Lord," as in Jeremiah and the rest. In both 
 alike the special name of God is " the Holy One of 
 Israel," a title which occurs besides only five times 
 in the whole of Scripture ; thrice in the Psalms, — but 
 of these psalms, one is generally ascribed to Isaiah's 
 pen, — once in Ezekiel, and once in Jeremiah, but in 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT OF ISAIAIl's HOPES. 121 
 
 the fifty-first chapter, which in many remarkable par- 
 ticulars leans upon and imitates Isaiah's prophecies g . 
 Lastly, in both parts alike there is the use of a 
 phrase almost peculiar to Isaiah, though common 
 in the New Testament, of being called something 
 in the sense of being it: — "Thou shalt be called," 
 that is, thou shalt be "the city of righteousness;" 
 "Mine house shall be called," that is, shall be "a 
 house of prayer for all people." 
 
 From these, therefore, and similar arguments, I con- 
 clude that we have in the last chapters the genuine 
 prophecies of that same Isaiah who flourished in Heze- 
 kiah's reign, and who spake of the birth of the Child 
 whose name is Wonderful, and of the Sceptre who 
 should spring from the hewn-down stem of Jesse. 
 Apparently they were written by him in his later 
 years, when, purified and ennobled by a life of ac- 
 tivity in God's service, he had withdrawn from active 
 cares, and fixed his whole soul in meditation upon the 
 coming of that Messiah towards whose advent he had 
 so often guided the thoughts of his countrymen. Be- 
 hind him was the memory of a life of unceasing en- 
 deavours to implant in the minds of both King and 
 people a knowledge of the true God, and of the 
 method of His righteous government upon earth ; but 
 around him lay the ruin of his hopes. The land daily 
 grew more desolate ; ever-increasing troops of marau- 
 ders destroyed the labours of the husbandman ; if he 
 tilled any remote field, strangers searched it out, and 
 devoured it in his presence : and the people, in their 
 * Jahn, ffinl, ii. 463. 
 
122 SEEMON IV. 
 
 distress, sought for comfort in human sacrifices and 
 oblations to devils. The piety of Hezekiah and the 
 warnings of Isaiah evidently had produced but little 
 effect on the minds of either princes or people : and 
 probably Manasseh did but bend to a general and 
 long-established feeling when he offered his son to 
 Moloch, and so rendered the apostacy of the nation 
 complete. Meanwhile, the inevitable day of punish- 
 ment drew nearer and nearer, and the Prophet clearly 
 foresaw the time when " the line of Samaria and the 
 plummet of the house of Ahab would be stretched 
 over Jerusalem, and the wrath of God would wipe it, 
 as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it 
 upside down." 
 
 But though the general state of things was thus 
 hopeless, there were yet numerous individuals who 
 served the Lord : and for them Isaiah had words of 
 comfort. He had indeed no present hope to suggest ; 
 no immediate deliverance was possible : but he could 
 tell them that the destruction of Jerusalem would not 
 be final, that it would yet rise again from its ruins ; 
 for that from the east a great hero should come, who 
 would overthrow their oppressors, restore the exiles 
 to their home, rebuild their city, and lay again the 
 foundations of their temple. But beyond this lay 
 their real and true solace. For it was sin which had 
 caused .their misery, as it is the ultimate cause of all 
 misery ; and for that a remedy is provided, not after 
 the manner which any human mind would have sug- 
 gested, but in God's own way, by One who should 
 be " wounded for their transgressions, and bruised 
 
THEEE STAGES OF FINAL DELIVERANCE. J 23 
 
 for their iniquities ; and on whom God would lay the 
 iniquity of us all." 
 
 Of this deliverance Isaiah clearly marks out three 
 stages in the course of this his final prophecy. Of 
 these, the first consists in the overthrow of heathenism, 
 whose powerless gods are contrasted with Him who 
 u works, and who shall let it? who stretcheth out 
 the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth 
 by Himself;" and whose victory is shewn by His 
 summoning Cyrus from the east to do His pleasure; 
 while the powerful kingdoms of "Ethiopia and Egypt, 
 and the Sabeans, men of stature, draw near in chains, 
 and mil down before His people, and make suppli- 
 cation unto them, saying, Surely God is in j r ou, and 
 there is none else, there is no God." 
 
 In the second stage, Israel and her friends and foes 
 alike fall into the background : it is now the healing 
 of the whole world. The controversy is no longer 
 between the senseless idols of heathenism and the true 
 God of the Jews ; the victory is no longer that of a 
 single nation : — " It is a light thing that the Messiah 
 should be God's servant, to raise up the tribes of 
 Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. He is 
 given also as a light to the Gentiles, and to be God's 
 salvation unto the end of the earth." The second 
 stage, therefore, discloses to us a Eedeemer ; " the 
 servant of Jehovah," the perfect pattern of all Chris- 
 tian virtues, of gentleness and mildness, and meekness 
 and patience, and suffering ; qualities which under 
 the Law had no place ; and He bears the griefs and 
 
124 SERMON IV. 
 
 carries the sorrows of His people, and in Him they 
 find their true happiness, — so that the "waste places 
 of Jerusalem break forth into joy and sing together : 
 for Jehovah hath comforted His people, He hath re- 
 deemed Jerusalem." 
 
 The third and final stage consists in the establish- 
 ment of Christ's universal kingdom, "when the Gen- 
 tiles come to His light, and kings to the brightness 
 of His rising ;" " when for their shame they have 
 double, and for confusion they rejoice in their por- 
 tion : therefore in their land they possess the double ; 
 everlasting joy is upon them." In this glorious king- 
 dom the root of sin has been destroyed, and therefore 
 its sad consequences have also ceased : " For behold 
 I create new heavens, and a new earth; in which 
 there shall no more be an infant of days, nor an old 
 man that hath not filled his days." There will be in 
 it no premature decay, nor any other disappointment, 
 " for none in it shall labour in vain, nor bring forth 
 for trouble." Children shall be the strength and hap- 
 piness of their parents, not their grief and misery. 
 And, in a word, all wrongs, all injuries done by man 
 to man shall have ceased : for, reverting to his former 
 prophecies, he says, " They shall not hurt nor destroy 
 in all My holy mountain ;" for " God shall extend 
 peace to His Church like a river, and the glory of the 
 Gentiles like a flowing stream." 
 
 Finally, he contrasts in it the glories of the new 
 dispensation with the condition of its prototype of 
 old. There were then the vicissitudes of fortune ; 
 the happiness of to-day forgotten in the miseries of 
 
CONCLUSION. 1 25 
 
 to-morrow. Henceforward there is no fear of change ; 
 "For as the new heavens and the new earth which 
 I will make shall remain before Me, saith the Lord : 
 so shall your seed and your name remain." ]Nor has 
 it any enemies to fear ; for " it shall come to pass, 
 that all flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith 
 the Lord." 
 
 Such, then, is the glorious prospect with which 
 Isaiah concludes his prophecies : and if, as we be- 
 lieve, the first two stages have been clearly accom- 
 plished, if a Eedeemer has been manifested who, 
 both in the letter and the spirit, has in them fulfilled 
 the Prophet's words, so, doubtless, in God's own time 
 this final stage of blessedness will also be reached, and 
 Christianity no longer be weak and feeble, divided in 
 itself, and but of limited influence over the minds of 
 its followers; but, strong in faith and holiness, the 
 Church will find her perfection in that close union 
 with her Lord of which the Prophet speaks in the 
 grandest terms of metaphor, — "The sun shall no 
 more be her light by day, neither for brightness 
 shall the moon give light unto her ; for Jehovah 
 shall be unto her an everlasting light, and her God 
 shall be her glory." 
 
SEltMON Y. 
 
 Isaiah xlii. 1 — 4. 
 
 "Behold My Servant, whom I upJwld ; Mine Elect, in whom 
 My soul delightetli ; I have put My Spirit upon Him : He 
 shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not 
 cry, nor lift ip, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 
 A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax 
 shall He not quench : He shall bring forth judgment unto 
 truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He 
 have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall zuait 
 for His law." 
 
 TN these words the Prophet briefly sets before us the 
 character and attributes of that Servant of Jehovah, 
 whose office, humiliation, and triumph form the main 
 subject of the present prophecy. Already I have en- 
 deavoured to shew how conclusive is the evidence, 
 derived both from external and internal sources, in 
 support of the unbroken tradition, both of the Jew- 
 ish and the Christian Church, that Isaiah is its real 
 author; and that the so-called Babylonian Isaiah is 
 an unreal fiction, invented for the purpose of sup- 
 porting a theory simply of conjecture, and destitute of 
 all solid proof. But in this, the final work of his old 
 age, Isaiah, still true to the one great subject of his 
 thoughts, nevertheless sees the Messiah, no longer 
 simply in His relation to the people of Israel, but as 
 the Saviour of all mankind. The local and temporary 
 
ArOSTACY OF JUDvEA. I 27 
 
 fortunes of Jerusalem and her kings fall into the back- 
 ground; the deliverance now to be wrought is no 
 longer the disruption of the league between Samaria 
 and Damascus ; it is no longer the pride of the As- 
 syrian host quelled by the destroying angel in one 
 death-fraught night : it is the redemption in and by 
 the Messiah of the whole world, and the establishment 
 of a Church which shall embrace all nations. 
 
 It is something distant to which the Prophet looks ; 
 for in the present there was little to give him consola- 
 tion. In the later years of Hezekiah, in spite of the 
 labours of both King and Prophet, the people more 
 and more obstinately gave themselves over to idolatry : 
 and everything was preparing for the day when Ma- 
 nasseh mounted the throne, and, by offering his own 
 children unto Moloch, made the national apostacy 
 complete. The last hope, therefore, of deliverance 
 was gone : the bitterness of exile could alone work 
 repentance in the nation, and bring them back to 
 a sense of the true nature of the relation between 
 them and God. The mass probably of the people, 
 carried away by superficial theories, imagined that 
 they would even find safety in adopting the same 
 gods as their neighbours. They argued, perhaps, that 
 their adherence to the doctrine of there being but one 
 God exposed them to hatred ; raised a barrier between 
 them and other kingdoms ; left them without allies ; 
 debarred them from adopting measures of public expe- 
 diency because of their being irreconcileable with the 
 unbending maxims of the theocratic government. The 
 times were too dangerous for such overstrained views, 
 
128 SEEM0N V. 
 
 and required a more pliant and supple policy. But 
 the Prophet, and those who, like him, understood the 
 true purpose of Israel's calling and the real con- 
 nection of cause and event in its history, foresaw 
 the approaching hour of judgment. Idolatrous Israel 
 must for a time cease to exist as a nation, and though 
 it could not perish, for God had a purpose in it, and 
 that purpose was unfulfilled, yet it must undergo His 
 righteous visitation, and be purified and brought to 
 a knowledge of itself by long years of saddening medi- 
 tation in an enemy's land. 
 
 It was most important, therefore, that the schools 
 of the prophets, as representing the spiritual life of 
 the nation, should be prepared for the events about to 
 happen, especially as very much would depend upon 
 the course which they took. As a fact we know that 
 their influence did greatly increase during the Babylo- 
 nian exile, and that they returned as the dominant 
 element, while the descendants of David sank to an 
 inferior place. "We know also that, owing to their 
 increased influence, the nation never again lapsed into 
 idolatry. And to this effect the arguments of Isaiah 
 must greatly have contributed : for never elsewhere 
 has the powerlessness of idols been shewn by such 
 unanswerable proofs, and demonstrated by irony so 
 keen and penetrating; and from his armoury other 
 prophets, and the later Psalms written during the 
 exile, drew their most polished weapons against the 
 heathen gods. 
 
 By many it has been supposed that these twenty- 
 
UNITY OF THE LAST TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTERS. 1 29 
 
 seven chapters form three separate discourses, ad- 
 dressed at different times to the schools of the pro- 
 phets ; and in support of this theory they allege that 
 they naturally divide into three portions of nearly 
 equal length, each containing nine chapters of our 
 version, and with the termination marked by the oc- 
 currence of the same refrain, " There is no peace, 
 saith the Lord — there is no peace, saith my God, unto 
 the wicked." But the prophecies of Isaiah are gene- 
 rally regular in their external form : and in the pre- 
 sent case the unity of the matter throughout renders 
 it the more probable view, that it is one connected 
 treatise. For though there is an advance, there is no 
 distinct division of subject. Certain points, indeed, 
 which hold a prominent place in the first section, 
 entirely disappear, and are never mentioned after- 
 wards : but there are other thoughts which as con- 
 stantly recur, and are never absent from the Prophet's 
 miud. In each portion, nevertheless, there is always 
 one subject which occupies a more important place 
 than the rest, and it is in the relation which these 
 bear to one another that we can trace the progress of 
 the Prophet's argumeut. For in the first section he 
 is chiefly occupied with the office of the Jewish people 
 to proclaim the unity of the Godhead — an office pecu- 
 liar to them up to the time of Messiah's advent. In 
 the second we have the sufferings of Jehovah's Ser- 
 vant, by whom a Church is to be founded, with 
 a fuller message of pardon and reconciliation for the 
 whole world than the Jews had to bear. In the third 
 we have the glory of the Israelitic people, which fol- 
 ic 
 
130 SERMON V. 
 
 lows upon their acceptance of the Messiah's mission, 
 and their consequent development into the Christian 
 Church. But all three subjects are more or less 
 ever present in the Prophet's mind, and run more 
 or less parallel to one another throughout the whole 
 discourse. 
 
 In the opening verses of the prophecy all three are 
 plainly set forth : " Speak ye comfortably to Jeru- 
 salem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accom- 
 plished, that her iniquity is pardoned : for she hath 
 received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." 
 For, first, we have the consummation of her office. 
 Heathenism passes away ; from the day of Messiah's 
 advent, a stronger power is developed, before which 
 it gradually recedes till it ceases to be the dominant 
 form of human worship. The warfare, therefore, of 
 the Jewish Church is accomplished; for her protest 
 against polytheism has no longer any place. And, 
 next, there is the pardon of iniquity, which Judaism 
 could not proclaim. For pardon to be possible a better 
 covenant must be established between God and man, by 
 virtue of His death on whom God laid the. iniquity 
 of us all. Lastly, there is a reward infinitely greater 
 than the punishment which her sins had brought 
 upon her : for no longer is she limited to the narrow 
 fortunes of one people, but, embracing the Gentile 
 world within her fold, becomes God's appointed wit- 
 ness for the truth among all nations and in all times, 
 with the promise of her Lord's perpetual presence, and 
 that the gates of hell shall never prevail against her. 
 
 There is, therefore, a real unity in the Prophet's 
 
STYLE OF ISAIAH S FINAL PROPHECY. 1 3 I 
 
 subject : for we may describe it as the mission of 
 Israel in first preparing the way for, and finally at- 
 taining to its own full' development in, the coming of 
 the promised Redeemer, who was to spring from the 
 Jewish race; and in whose new dispensation — that 
 " new heavens and new earth which Jehovah would 
 create" — God's purposes of mercy unto mankind were 
 to obtain a wider and more universal fulfilment than 
 was possible under the Mosaic economy. And his 
 style is worthy of his theme ; for as the spirit of pro- 
 phecy moved him to disclose to the earlier Church the 
 inmost mystery of the Gospel, "that Christ must suf- 
 fer, and enter into His glory," so also did his own 
 great gifts enable him to embody it in language 
 which stands unequalled in the whole rauge of He- 
 brew literature. God had chosen an instrument fitted 
 for the work he had to accomplish. It constantly, in- 
 deed, recals to our minds the Isaiah of the previous 
 prophecies, but age and meditation have ripened and 
 mellowed his judgment. There are no longer the 
 harsh contrasts, the abrupt bursts of vehemence, the 
 fierce play of emotions, which troubled the current of 
 his thoughts in earlier years. Twice only is their 
 clear and regular flow disturbed: first in the fifty- 
 third chapter, where in the anguish of* sorrow he 
 pours forth the same chafed stream of broken sen- 
 tences which had been usual with him of old ; and 
 again in the concluding verses of the fifty-sixth chap- 
 ter, and the first eleven verses of the fifty-seventh, where 
 the earnestness of his reproof of the idolatrous ten- 
 dencies of his countrymen again gives abruptness and 
 
 k2 
 
I32 SERMON V. 
 
 ruggedness to his style. Everywhere else the order 
 of his words and the connexion of his ideas are alike 
 plain and clear ; and we feel that we have in them 
 the last utterance of one whose strong and impulsive 
 nature had been calmed down by the varied experi- 
 ence of an eventful life, and the mission of whose 
 closing years was to give strength and consolation to 
 those who loved God among his nation, by shewing 
 them of how great a hope for all mankind they were 
 the pledge, and that God would therefore certainly 
 visit and redeem His people. 
 
 As the subjects of the Prophet's discourse are 
 throughout simultaneously present in his mind, though 
 each more prominently brought forward in its own 
 several portion, I propose, in the first place, briefly 
 to follow and explain the course of his thoughts in 
 their mutual relation, and subsequently to consider 
 more fully the office of Israel in connexion with the 
 servant of Jehovah described to us in the text. 
 
 In the first part the Prophet chiefly presses upon 
 the Jews the duty of performing that office to which 
 they, under the providence of God, had been especially 
 called. Doubtless every individual and nation and 
 Church has some appointed duty, some place assigned 
 it in the divine economy ; and its wisdom and safety 
 consist in its faithful discharge of its trust. But the 
 Jews had been called to their office in an especial 
 manner by prophecy and revelation, and, as the foremost 
 branch of the family of Shem, it chiefly devolved upon 
 
MOXOTHEISM OF THE ARABS. 133 
 
 them to bear witness to the unity of the Godhead ; — ■ 
 a truth which has ever found in the Semitic race its 
 most earnest defenders. It was this truth which the 
 Arabs victoriously bore, in the seventh century, both 
 to the heathens and to a Church lapsing into a sensuous 
 idolatry. It was this truth which gave permanency 
 to their work, and earned for them, as a reward, the 
 possession of some of the fairest portions of the earth. 
 But with truth there was also the brand of falsehood 
 upon their arms. Like Jehu of old, they wrought a 
 kind of reformation, and had a limited reward; but 
 their heart was not whole with God, and therefore 
 their power has dwindled, and its springs dried up, 
 and they have long ceased to exercise any influence 
 for good. Especially the method in which they pro- 
 pagated their one truth was contrary to God's deal- 
 ings; for the weapons of their warfare were car- 
 nal, and not spiritual. For punishment, God permits 
 wrong and violence ; many an evil is swept from the 
 earth by the march of armies, which otherwise would 
 have long cumbered the ground with its slow decay ; 
 but it is not God's method of planting the truth. 
 " The Servant of Jehovah does not cry, nor lift up, 
 nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets." It 
 was by suffering that the Messiah saw of the travail 
 of His soul, and was satisfied; and in all ages His 
 work on earth can be carried on only by patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing : whereas it was by deeds of 
 violence, and in the spirit of intolerance, that the false 
 prophet broke the bruised reed of heathen superstition, 
 and quenched the faint embers of faith still smoking 
 
134 SERMON V. 
 
 in the Eastern Church. And possibly this was the 
 reason why the possession of that one great truth, 
 that the Lord God is One God, did not prepare their 
 minds for faith in that same One God as mysteri- 
 ously manifesting Himself in a Trinity of Persons, as 
 a Father who creates, a Son who redeems, a Holy 
 Spirit who sanctifies us. 
 
 But though the first-born of the Semitic race, and 
 aided by an ever-growing revelation, the Jew was, 
 nevertheless, with difficulty brought to the convic- 
 tion of this truth. Perhaps in the earlier ages of the 
 world, when nature seemed to the imaginations of the 
 people itself an animated power, it was difficult for 
 the mind to rise to the conception of a spiritual being 
 in whom and by whom all things consist. Certainly 
 the Jews, though fenced about by a minute and scru- 
 pulous ritual, intended mainly to impress upon them 
 that God is One, did not really embrace the doctrine 
 till the Babylonian exile had taught them, as it were, 
 with thorns; and even then it was with narrow bi- 
 gotry and in the spirit of exclusiveness. The divine 
 discipline did, however, at length so deeply imprint 
 this truth upon them, that through and by them it 
 has become the peculiar heritage of their whole race. 
 For when we meet on all sides with the acknowledg- 
 ment that the Semitic race is the representative of the 
 monotheistic principle, we are not to suppose that they 
 are born so by a mere lusus naturce, that they have 
 a natural disposition to believe in One God, an instinct, 
 as it were, like that of swallows to migrate. The 
 powers of the human mind and its tendencies seem 
 
FORMATION OF NATIONAL CHARACTER. is5 
 
 everywhere much the same, but they are developed 
 or debased by external circumstances, by the discipline 
 of events, the course of public policy, the truth or 
 falseness of the principles current among the peo- 
 ple, the virtues and vices of their leading men, the 
 character of their national literature, the conforma- 
 tion of their country, and other moral and physical 
 causes. As tljese combine for good or evil, so a race 
 rises or falls in the scale of humanity. The Semitic 
 race had no natural tendency to monotheism : certainly 
 we find the Jewish imagination ready to revel in the 
 grossest enjoyments of heathen licentiousness ; but it 
 was a race tenacious of purpose and strong for good 
 and for evil ; as likely to be foremost in vice as the 
 teachers of virtue. And God, by a long discipline, 
 gradually moulded it, till it heartily embraced the 
 doctrine of the unity of His nature ; and through evil 
 report and good report it has held it firmly to the 
 present day. 
 
 But when Isaiah wrote, this end had been by no 
 means attained ; the people still practised with eager- 
 ness the grossest idolatry : and therefore he sets be- 
 fore them, in the clearest light, the utter powerless- 
 ness of idols; with the keenest irony he reproaches 
 them that of the stump of a tree, unfit for the carpen- 
 ter's work, too worthless even to burn, they made 
 them a god, whom they must "set up in his place or 
 he cannot stand ; and who, though one cry unto him, 
 yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his 
 trouble." With these he contrasts Him who meteth 
 out the heavens with a span, and measureth the 
 
136 SERMON V. 
 
 waters with the hollow of His hand, and who is not 
 merely the God of nature, but also of providence and 
 of grace. He appeals to God's works of old, and to the 
 fulfilment of prophecies publicly declared in His name, 
 for evidence of the reality of His righteous govern- 
 ment of the world ; and as a last and decisive proof, 
 he brings forward the call of Cyrus by name, and the 
 overthrow of Babylon by his arms. Cyrus is God's 
 instrument: — "My shepherd, who shall perform all 
 My pleasure : I have holden him by the right hand, 
 to subdue nations before him." It is God's work 
 which he is summoned to perform, and the purpose of 
 it does not centre in himself, but in God's people : 
 "for Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect, 
 I have even called thee by thy name." 
 
 So special an instance of the intervention of God's 
 providence in their favour, so long foretold, so clearly 
 fulfilled, could scarcely fail in strongly impressing 
 their minds with the conviction that He was in deed 
 and reality the one true God. The verification also of 
 so remarkable a prediction set the seal of inspiration 
 to all the Prophet's words; so that it was no longer 
 merely the weight of his arguments which demon- 
 strated the powerlessness of idols, but they heard in 
 them also the voice of Omnipotence. For in their deep- 
 est humiliation, dwelling as a scanty remnant among 
 the many tribes, torn from distant homes to people that 
 vast city, God summons from the east a mighty hero, 
 and surrounds him with the glory of all but univer- 
 sal dominion; at his presence Babylon itself, whose 
 mighty fortifications and long - accumulated stores 
 
BABYLON REPKESEXTATIVE OF HEATHENISM. 137 
 
 bade defiance to all human efforts, opens a Tray for 
 his entrance, and while the king and nobles are de- 
 riding the hopes of the besieger, falls without a strug- 
 gle : and the mission of this conqueror was solely for 
 their sakes. In itself that general transplantation 
 of races, which had been the policy of the Assyrian 
 kings, was equally necessary for Cyrus. So vast an em- 
 pire must fall to pieces of itself, if the inhabitants had 
 local affections, and were united by the bonds of race, 
 and religious worship, and national associations; but 
 each nation, removed from its own land, was merged 
 in a vast mass of abject slaves, with no tie to hold 
 them together, no chieftain to head their efforts. Yet 
 in this one instance Cyrus reverses the general policy 
 of all conquerors. Surely the contrast between their 
 fate and that of Babylon could not but demonstrate to 
 them the conclusion which so long before the Prophet 
 had deduced from it. She represented the strength 
 of heathenism, and had every element of worldly suc- 
 cess. The Jews were the people of the one true God, 
 but so weak and few that they must apparently be 
 trampled out in the collision of two such mighty 
 empires as then struggled for the possession of Asia. 
 But the fall of Babylon was the appointed proof of 
 the weakness of idols ; and therefore her mighty walls, 
 her rapid river, her warlike population inured to 
 victory, were all unable to rescue her. " Come down, 
 and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon : 
 thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms : 
 for they shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of 
 them: they shall go to confusion together that are 
 
138 SERMON V. 
 
 makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the 
 Lord with an everlasting salvation." The first act of 
 the conqueror shall be to acknowledge the Lord God 
 of heaven, to set the people free, and to rebuild the 
 temple of Jerusalem in token of his homage. 
 
 The reason of Israel's salvation consists in the im- 
 portant office assigned her in the divine economy. In 
 and by her the Gentiles are to be called to the know- 
 ledge of the truth. Long disobedient to her mission, 
 she has been visited by repeated chastisements ; but 
 finally, being brought to repentance by so convincing 
 a proof of the reality of God's government of events, 
 she will henceforward devote herself to the discharge 
 of her appointed duty : and thereupon the Prophet 
 sees a glorious era commencing, of triumph for his 
 nation, and of holiness and happiness for the world. 
 It is in the third and last portion that this subject is 
 most prominently brought forward. Full of vehement 
 reproofs against idolatry, setting Israel's sin before its 
 face even more directly than in the first part, he also 
 describes the consequences which should follow upon 
 their abandonment of their idols, and the blessedness 
 they would enjoy in the new dispensation, when the 
 Gentiles also should be gathered in, and the carnal 
 be lost in the spiritual Israel ; when Jew and Gentile 
 alike " should be named the priests of the Lord, and 
 clothed with the garments of salvation." To Isaiah it 
 seemed as though this reign of holiness would imme- 
 diately follow upon the return from exile : in reality 
 his prophecies are even now but partially fulfilled. 
 
JEHOVAH'S SERVANT. 1 39 
 
 For as a general rule the time of events was not re- 
 vealed unto the prophets, though "they searched, 
 what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
 which was in them did signify." They saw every- 
 thing as present, like pictures raised up before their 
 eyes. Partially, however, it was fulfilled when the 
 Jews, upon their return from captivity, heartily em- 
 braced the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead ; far 
 more complete was its accomplishment when twelve 
 Jewish fishermen carried the tidings of salvation to 
 the whole world ; but its great and final fulfilment is 
 reserved for the time when the sacrifice of Christ shall 
 not only virtually, but also practically, be the healing 
 of the nations, and the Church become in fact what 
 now she is in theory. 
 
 And between these two parts — between the Jew- 
 ish Church as it was of old, and as it attains to its 
 perfection in the Christian dispensation — stands the 
 Messiah, Jehovah's Servant, who, through shame, aud 
 grief, and suffering, wins salvation for the whole 
 world. In Him, as the Corner-stone, both Churches 
 are made one ; and Israel's repentance from her ido- 
 latry of old, and her reconstruction into a Church of 
 which the members are a royal priesthood and a holy 
 nation, are in Him and by Him. In Him her warfare 
 is accomplished; by Him she receives the double of 
 all her sins. To this portion, therefore, the hearts of 
 believers have ever chiefly turned. For though the 
 Prophet speaks in general terms, yet the purport of 
 his teaching is so clear, that " he seems to have stood 
 at the foot of the cross, and to have been present with 
 
140 SERMON V. 
 
 the Apostles when they laid the body of the Lord in 
 the rich man's garden." 
 
 Snch then, apparently, is the connexion of the Pro- 
 phet's thoughts in the three several portions of this 
 prophecy : it remains to consider more fully the main 
 subject of the first part, namely, the office of the 
 Church as originally represented by the Jews, but 
 now, in its fuller development, by Christianity, to 
 proclaim the knowledge of the one God. 
 
 In the text this duty is described as mainly de- 
 volving upon a person : " Behold My Servant, whom 
 I uphold." And constantly, throughout the whole 
 prophecy, but especially in the first and second por- 
 tions, this Servant of Jehovah is repeatedly referred to. 
 
 Now few subjects have given rise to more discus- 
 sion than the question, Who is this " Servant of Je- 
 hovah?" For some have argued that it means the 
 whole Jewish people, while others confine it to such 
 among them as remained true to Israel's calling ; 
 some see in it the prophetic order, others a single 
 person — Cyrus, or Hezekiah, or Josiah ; a few even 
 imagine that Isaiah was describing himself, while 
 one or two think they have discovered the true so- 
 lution in the character of Jeremiah, and suggest that 
 Baruch was possibly the author of the entire prophecy. 
 Now, eagerly as the expositors of the "higher criti- 
 cism" embrace and defend one or other of these views, 
 they really are all borrowed from the writings of the 
 Jewish apologists in the middle ages. The Jews at 
 that time, in their controversies with Christians, were 
 
MULTITUDE OF JEWISH THEORIES. 141 
 
 pressed hard by the exactness with which the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in our Lord : they had 
 indeed a difficulty with which the theologians of the 
 modern school are not troubled, namely, that all their 
 own authorities, their paraphrasts and great teachers 
 down to the ninth century, had uniformly applied the 
 prophecy to the Messiah ; they saw also many of their 
 leading men falling away and joining the Christians, 
 unable to resist the argument, that if the words of 
 Isaiah did apply to the Messiah, that Messiah must 
 be Jesus of Nazareth ; and therefore they were obliged 
 to invent some theory plausible enough to satisfy the 
 minds of their people. The multitude of their theories 
 plainly shews that no one was satisfactory. There 
 was no one sufficiently in accord with the whole 
 course of the prophecy, or sufficiently free from ob- 
 jections, to content them ; and each expositor, suc- 
 cessful in destroying the hypotheses of his prede- 
 cessors, originated a new explanation equally sure 
 of refutation at the hand of the next interpreter. 
 They were schemes, therefore, suggested for the sole 
 purpose of evading a difficulty, and not matters of 
 genuine belief, the honest product of conscientious 
 conviction. In the works of the moderns even their 
 schemes are strangely distorted. Bunsen, for instance, 
 in his " God in History," quotes Saadia, " the great 
 Eector of the Academy at Sura," as the authority for 
 his theory, that Jeremiah was the servant of Jehovah, 
 the man of sorrows, who bore our sin ; apparently not 
 being aware that Saadia Gaon's own final view was 
 that the " servant of Jehovah" was Cyrus, " God's 
 
142, SERMON V. 
 
 anointed," and " His shepherd." "We may, however, 
 dismiss these theories as the mere upgrowth of po- 
 lemic necessity, and content ourselves with the fact 
 that the Messianic interpretation has the consistent 
 testimony in its favour both of the Jewish and also 
 of the Christian Church. For the former, it may 
 suffice to quote the Chaldee paraphrast, who renders 
 the opening words, " Behold, My Servant, the Mes- 
 siah ;" and for the latter, St. Matthew's direct appli- 
 cation of the passage to our Lord. The title also, 
 irah Oeov, given to the Saviour on several occasions 
 in the New Testament, was probably taken from the 
 Septuagint version of the "Servant of Jehovah;" 
 and, chief of all, the attesting voice at His baptism 
 and on the mount of Transfiguration plainly refers to 
 the words of the first verse of my text. 
 
 But though this interpretation is the only one 
 possible for Christians, yet the question may arise 
 whether it exhausts the Prophet's meaning? espe- 
 cially when we find that Israel and Jacob are often 
 directly addressed as Jehovah's servant and His elect : 
 — "Yet now hear, Jacob My servant; and Israel, 
 whom I have chosen a ;" " For Jacob My servant's 
 sake, and Israel Mine elect b ;" "Thou, Israel, art 
 My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen ;" and in the 
 very chapter from which my text is taken, Jehovah's 
 servant is even blamed, — " Who is blind, but My ser- 
 vant ? or deaf, as My messenger that I sent ? who is 
 blind as he that is perfect, and blind as Jehovah's 
 
 a Isa. xliv. 1. b lb. xlv. 4. 
 
 e lb. xli. 8; add xliv. 2, 21, xlviii. 12, 20. 
 
MEANING OF " SERVANT." 143 
 
 servant ?" Now the true interpretation must embrace 
 every portion of the prophecy, and we shall perhaps 
 best arrive at it by considering what is the meaning 
 of the title itself. We may notice then, concerning 
 it, that it is the name given to Moses in the postscript 
 to the book of Deuteronomy* 1 , and in the commence- 
 ment of the book of Joshua, where we read, " The 
 Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Moses, My servant, 
 is dead." It is also given by God to David, in the 
 message sent him respecting his purpose to build a 
 temple, — "Go and tell My servant David e ." And 
 again, to the prophets; as for instance, to Isaiah, — 
 " The Lord said, Like as My servant Isaiah ;" and 
 seven times in Jeremiah it is applied to the prophets 
 generally. In these and all similar cases it is a title 
 of honour, and signifies one appointed by God for the 
 execution of His purposes, — His minister ; it does not 
 mean one who has to obey, but implies a privilege, 
 a favour, the being selected for a post of high dig- 
 nity : and this sense is confirmed by the requi re- 
 ments of the law of parallelism; for we constantly 
 find in the other member of the distich some such 
 honourable title as "My elect," "My chosen one," 
 " the seed of Abraham My friend." Now the people 
 of Israel were thus selected by God to occupy a post 
 of high honour among the nations of the world ; they 
 were appointed by God as His ministers, His represen- 
 tatives, to perform a special and ennobling duty ; they 
 were called to be His servants ; and the service they 
 had to render was the salvation of the world, — for, in 
 
 d Chap, xxxiv. 5. * 2 Sam. vii. 5. 
 
144 SEBMON V. 
 
 the words of our Saviour, " Salvation is of the Jews," 
 inasmuch as "to them pertained the adoption, and the 
 glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, 
 and the temple service, and the promises ; theirs were 
 the fathers ; and of them as concerning the flesh Christ 
 came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." 
 But the ministry to which the Jews were appointed 
 was really and truly executed by God's " holy servant 
 Jesus f ." They were, in a measure, set for the salvation 
 of the world ; by them all nations of the earth were 
 blessed ; but only because their mission led on to, and 
 was rendered complete in, Christ. And therefore in 
 the first portion of the prophecy, Isaiah, being chiefly 
 occupied with the Church's mission, speaks of it some- 
 times as it belongs to the body, and sometimes as it 
 belongs to the head. Their functions are indeed distinct 
 in their relation to one another, but combine in their 
 relation to the external world. The Jews proclaimed 
 God's truth to the world ; they taught it His nature, 
 and announced the coming of a Saviour : but in that 
 Saviour still deeper mysteries of God's nature were 
 revealed, and the promises of the earlier dispensation 
 fulfilled.- There is nothing therefore surprising in the 
 fact that the title of God's servant is not confined in 
 this first part to the Messiah, but is shared by the 
 Jewish Church ; for the Jewish Church shared in His 
 office. But in the second part, in which the Prophet 
 describes the work of atonement, the title is exclu- 
 sively confined to our Lord ; because in this work His 
 Church has no share. The servant of Jehovah is now 
 f Tvais, Acts iv. 30. 
 
VICARIOUS SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. 1 45 
 
 distinguished from the Jews ; for His special work is 
 as necessary for them as for the Gentiles ; they must 
 as much be saved by His sacrifice as the remotest 
 heathen; but this work is not confined to them, and 
 therefore the promise, — " It is a light thing that Thou 
 shouldest be my Servant to raise up the tribes of 
 Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will 
 also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou 
 mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth." 
 
 The work therefore of the Atonement is the Mes- 
 siah's special office, and in it His Church does not share; 
 and con sequent ry, in the second portion of the pro- 
 phecy, no single instance occurs of the title " Servant 
 of Jehovah" being applied to any but to Christ. But 
 in proclaiming the knowledge of God, and in recon- 
 ciling the world to the Father by bearing the good 
 tidings of salvation to the whole creation, the Church 
 is the appointed instrument for completing the Saviour's 
 mission. And in performing this duty, a part of the 
 text is directly fulfilled in the body, which was only 
 virtually fulfilled in the Head: for "the servant of 
 Jehovah," we read, " shall bring forth judgment unto 
 the Gentiles." 
 
 The Jewish controversialists have indeed endea- 
 voured to adapt even the second portion of the pro- 
 phecy to their theory, that the Jewish nation is "the 
 servant of Jehovah," by ascribing a vicarious virtue 
 to the calamities which, from the time of the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, they have had to endure. For they 
 argue, that as being the chosen nation, the deposita- 
 ries of the truth, they are the best, the noblest of the 
 
 L 
 
146 SERMON V. 
 
 people of the earth ; the heart, as it were, of the one 
 body of mankind : and as the heart bears all the sor- 
 rows of the body, so must Israel suffer for the sins 
 of the whole world. But when, by their mediation, an 
 atonement has been made, they expect that they shall 
 be rewarded by the exclusive enjoyment of that era 
 of glory which Isaiah finally describes g . 
 
 But this interpretation is but an afterthought : nor 
 can it invalidate the testimony of their ancient writers, 
 who with one consent refer the whole prophecy to the 
 Messiah. Even in later times, Abravanel says that 
 "they are smitten with blindness who deny that Je- 
 hovah's servant is the Messiah." And an attentive 
 consideration will shew that the idea of a Person, an 
 Individual, was present throughout to the Prophet's 
 mind. For there is a constant parallel maintained 
 between the return from Babylon and the return from 
 Egypt ; and Moses therefore, the great leader of their 
 first deliverance, is ever present to Isaiah's view as 
 the prototype of the Messiah. The words seem ever 
 sounding in his ear, " The Lord thy God will raise 
 up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
 brethren, like unto me." "Was then Moses the meekest 
 of men ? so the Servant of Jehovah " shall not cry, nor 
 lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets." 
 Was Moses on his first appearance rejected? Did they 
 say, " Who made thee a prince and a judge over us ?" 
 And again, " As for this man, Moses, we wot not what 
 is become of him;" so Isaiah complains, "Who hath 
 believed our report?" "He is despised and rejected 
 b Chisuk Emima, upon Isaiah lii. liii. 
 
PARALLEL BETWEEN MOSES AND CHRIST. 1 47 
 
 of men." The very title is taken from Moses : for as 
 we have seen, he was the first to whom it was applied ; 
 "Moses, Jehovah's servant." 
 
 But the return from Babylon is far more triumphant 
 than the exodus from Egypt. Moses led the Israelites 
 only into a pastoral country, "flowing with milk and 
 honey," a land of grass and flowers ; but the Messiah 
 restores the exiles to a land in which dwelleth holi- 
 ness; full of spiritual blessings, where sin does not 
 exist, and where, consequently, no voice of weeping is 
 heard, nor the voice of crying; none hurt there or 
 destroy ; for the people are all righteous, — the re- 
 deemed of the Lord. Even the greatest natural bless- 
 ings in it are not worthy of being mentioned in com- 
 parison with God's better gifts ; the light of the sun 
 is forgotten in the thought of the spiritual light which 
 shines in men's hearts; "for Jehovah shall be unto 
 thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." 
 
 And a similar contrast exists between the two 
 leaders. On both the Spirit rests, and both are the 
 mediators of a covenant : both are legislators, who by 
 the institutions which they found, form a people for 
 God's service ; but the institutions of the one are tem- 
 porary, of the other eternal. One prepares for, the 
 other accomplishes God's work ; one forms the people 
 of God in their national character, the other in their 
 spiritual. The office of the one is confined to the seed 
 of Abraham after the flesh ; the other includes the 
 Gentiles. Lastly, the work of Moses may fail; but 
 the Servant of Jehovah " shall not fail, till lie have 
 set judgment in the earth." 
 
 l2 
 
148 SERMON V. 
 
 Throughout, then, Isaiah had a Person in his mind, 
 even Him, whom Moses, in his high office as God's 
 representative on earth, had shadowed forth ; and both 
 type and antetype are associated in the words, — " Then 
 he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, 
 saying, "Where is he that brought them up out of the 
 sea with the Shepherd of his flock ? where is he that 
 put his Holy Spirit within him ? That led them by 
 the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing 
 the water before them, to make himself an everlast- 
 ing name ?" 
 
 The two Churches therefore, the typical Church of 
 the Jews, and the Christian Church, appear in the 
 persons of their founders ; and as Moses was especially 
 the servant of Jehovah under the preparatory dispen- 
 sation, so in the new dispensation it is the Messiah. 
 And whenever the title is applied to the Church her- 
 self, it is because she shares in the Redeemer's office, 
 and is His representative by reason of His presence 
 with her according to His promise, "Lo I am with 
 you always, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 But if to any it seem a difficulty that so high a title 
 should in the first portion of the prophecy be applied 
 to the Church, whereas in the second it is limited to 
 the Church's Head, we must remember that this double 
 sense is of too ordinary occurrence in Scripture to sur- 
 prise us. And especially it is Isaiah's habit to start 
 from some lower application of his theme, and omit it 
 entirely from his view when he rises to those sacred 
 mysteries which he was especially commissioned to 
 
GOD S PLEASURE IN THE JEWS. 1 49 
 
 reveal. Even the prediction of Moses, — " A Prophet 
 shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto 
 me," has a lower application to other manifestations 
 of the prophetic spirit, besides its final fulfilment in 
 our Lord, as any one will see who reads the verses 
 which follow it. In Christ, prophecy reaches its high- 
 est culmination : for the Spirit rests not by measure 
 upon Him, nor does He speak as He is inspired, but 
 by His own omniscience ; but mediately He also spake 
 by the prophets of the old, and the evangelists of the 
 new covenant. So also St. Paul's argument to the 
 Galatians, that the promised seed of Abraham, as not 
 being many, but one, was Christ personally, does not 
 exclude the equally true interpretation, that in an- 
 other sense the Jewish nation was Abraham's seed. 
 For the literal Israel had its own share in the pro- 
 mises, and its own part to perform in blessing all the 
 families of mankind; and the spiritual Israel, the 
 blessed company of all believing people, has its part 
 now, and must carry on the Messiah's work of re- 
 demption. 
 
 But it has been argued that prophecies cannot 
 really belong to the Jewish Church, which speak in 
 such unqualified terms of God's love and pleasure in 
 her. But such objections are founded upon a mis- 
 understanding. The sins and shortcomings of Israel 
 were many, both as a Church and as a nation; but 
 within her was contained whatever there was of faith 
 upon the earth. Not of virtue, for the heathens, not 
 having the law, were often a law unto themselves; 
 but of that holiness which springs out of a knowledge 
 
150 SERMON v. 
 
 of God, they alone were capable, because they alone 
 possessed a revelation, which is faith's sole objective 
 ground. So far, then, no terms could be too high; 
 none of which they were not worthy. But these 
 terms must not be applied without discrimination to 
 the individual members of the Jewish Church ; for 
 they belonged to them only so far as they were in 
 practice what all were in theory. And similarly as 
 the words pass on to the Christian Church. Of God's 
 love and boundless pleasure in it the prophets speak 
 in the most unqualified terms ; but it can claim this 
 love only so far as it attains to that holiness in which 
 the prophets saw it arrayed. God's gifts are con- 
 ditional, and depend upon man's acceptance of them ; 
 and though His promises fail not, yet the extent to 
 which they are enjoyed, both by the whole Church 
 and by its individual members, depends upon the 
 strength of their faith, and their actual advance in 
 holiness. But always, whatever there is of faith upon 
 earth, is within the borders of the Church ; and even 
 in the worst times of history, "when the righteous 
 perish, and no man layeth it to heart," and doubt and 
 unbelief are alone visible in the outward course of 
 events, God doubtless has a remnant, to whom the 
 words of His Prophets apply, just as in rebellious and 
 schismatical Israel there were seven thousand who 
 had not bowed the knee to Baal. 
 
 A few remarks upon the passage chosen for my 
 text may serve to confirm the foregoing conclusions. 
 We read there that the Servant of Jehovah shall bring 
 
THE CHURCH A TEACHER OF MORALITY. 15 1 
 
 forth judgment to the Gentiles. The Messiah's king- 
 dom, therefore, is not one of war and violence, but of 
 justice; the justice founded upon the golden law of 
 loving our neighbour as ourselves. But this justice 
 is the gift of God to His people ; and accordingly the 
 Psalmist claims it as the especial privilege in old 
 time of the Jews, that "God gave them His judg- 
 ments." The great principle of the world is an " en- 
 lightened self-interest ;" and as interests must clash, 
 litigation, and strife, and war, are the necessary conse- 
 quence : it is only in that equal regard for the rights 
 of others, which is taught men by the knowledge of 
 God's nature and of His revealed will, that the Mes- 
 siah's reign of peace is possible. We see, then, in the 
 Prophet's words the Messiah as the teacher of justice 
 in its noblest and Christian form, as it makes men as 
 careful of the rights of others as of their own : and in 
 this office the Church is also joined with Him ; for its 
 great office is also to teach mankind morality, as it is 
 based- upon religion. Of old the Jewish Church re- 
 ceived the ten commandments and the moral law as 
 summed up in those two great principles in which all 
 duty is contained, of loving God with all our hearts, 
 and our neighbour as ourselves, and with the posses- 
 sion of them she was also the appointed witness of 
 them to others. And now this duty has devolved upon 
 the Christian Church, only it has the fuller light of 
 the Messiah's explanation of God's commandments; 
 and also higher motives, wherewith to encourage men, 
 inasmuch as Christ has now "brought life and im- 
 mortality to light through the Gospel." 
 
152 SERMON V. 
 
 And next, we have the manner in which God's 
 truth is to he propagated. " He shall not cry, nor lift 
 up, nor cause His voice to he heard in the streets." 
 It is the way of gentleness, of long-suffering and for- 
 bearance : and such was the example which the Sa- 
 viour set. And now, in extending His kingdom, His 
 Church must use the same methods : all force, all 
 violence is forbidden ; it must not proselytize men by 
 arms, nor spread religion at the sword's point. Its 
 sole weapons must be the holy lives of its members, 
 the example of earnest continuance in well-doing, and 
 of mercy and love towards others. Even in seeking 
 their good its efforts must be quiet and unostenta- 
 tious ; for so its Master would not have His very 
 miracles noised abroad, and when the crowds thronged 
 around Him He withdrew into the wilderness. And 
 the reason of this is plain, namely, that Christianity 
 requires, not an outward conformity, but an inward 
 conviction, the result of a change in the conscience of 
 the individual. A man cannot be made a Christian 
 by the command of his rulers : he does not even 
 become one by being carried along for the moment 
 upon the stream of a popular movement, or by the 
 temporary pressure of enthusiasm. External diffi- 
 culties may be removed by these means; for God 
 works by human instruments : but no human power 
 or influence by itself suffices for the necessary change 
 within the soul. There must be also the speaking of 
 that still small voice, in which Elijah of old recog- 
 nised the presence of God. 
 
 The propagators of Christianity must be gentle, 
 
MANNER OF PROPAGATING TRUTH. 1 53 
 
 therefore, even in uprooting what is evil; for next 
 we read that the bruised reed of heathenism is not to 
 be broken. All but separated from God, with the 
 spiritual life decayed, the moral feelings confused, 
 the conscience polluted by sin, and uncertain of even 
 the main truths of man's position, nevertheless there 
 still are threads which bind even the heathen to God. 
 And these are not to be severed. "Whatever truth 
 they hold is to be strengthened, and they must be 
 guided into more truth. So St. Paul at Athens did 
 not attack the popular belief, but seized upon what- 
 ever in it was true to lead them on unto higher and 
 more spiritual views. For even in quitting error the 
 mind suffers a rough shock. The new faith is long 
 before it strikes its roots as deeply as the old ones, 
 which were knotted together by a thousand associa- 
 tions. And constantly therefore we see converts long 
 restless and uncertain, and often changing with pain- 
 ful fickleness from creed to creed, as if every doubt 
 and suspicion ought to be welcomed instead of re- 
 sisted. And often the overthrow even of a false 
 creed simply produces the negation of belief, and 
 a spirit of general scepticism, instead of implanting 
 a better faith. God has nowhere left Himself so en- 
 tirely without witness that it can be right to destroy 
 all that a people hold, that so upon a foundation of 
 ruins may be built up a new belief. Bather must 
 Christians seek to strengthen whatever others hold of 
 truth, to remove their ignorance, to enlighten their 
 conscience, develope their moral feelings, and gradually 
 guide them into a better knowledge of their state. 
 
154 SERMON Y. 
 
 And so also of those who have had the light, but 
 whose wick is ready to go out, the Messiah will not 
 quench it. It is the picture of what was once strong 
 and bright, ready to perish of exhaustion. Such per- 
 sons may be entirely lost by the words of vehement 
 reproof or contempt. The glimmering wick can only 
 be fanned into a flame by the gentlest care : and so 
 must they be won back by kindness into those paths 
 of holiness in which their lamps will once again be 
 brightly trimmed and burning. 
 
 And similarly of all who are in grief and sorrow ; in 
 worldly trouble, and in the first emotions of repentance ; 
 He who came to seek and save that which was lost, 
 will encourage the weak in faith, will teach the igno- 
 rant, raise up the oppressed, bind up the broken- 
 hearted. And in imitating His example, His Church, 
 in the next place, " will bring forth judgment unto 
 truth," or rather, according to the truth, in a true 
 and proper manner. For by the use of righteous 
 means, by influencing men's consciences by the holy 
 example of its members, and convincing the minds 
 and reasons of those whom it wins into the fold, it is 
 not merely building upon the one foundation, Christ, 
 but building also that which will endure, a work 
 wdiich has the seal of the Spirit set to the labours 
 of men. And equally upon her own nominal mem- 
 bers, the persuasion of the devout and earnest lives 
 of her true sons will have more influence than any 
 attempts to produce a mere external conformity. 
 
 And while thus using no force, the victory of Je- 
 hovah's Servant is sure, — "He shall not fail, nor be 
 
CONCLUSION. 155 
 
 discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth, 
 and the remotest lands wait for His law." Through- 
 out, the Messiah's victory is won by patience and suf- 
 fering ; and so His Church, in spite of difficulties, and 
 discouragements, and dangers, must persevere in its 
 office ; it must not cease its work ; it must not be 
 discouraged, or rather, bruised like the reed — for the 
 same word is used in both places : on the contrary, 
 it must steadily labour in its mission, assured that 
 finally it will win the heathen for its inheritance, and 
 the uttermost parts of the earth for its possession. For 
 it has received its commission from God, and He will 
 prosper His work. 
 
 And thus, then, in that office of the servant of Je- 
 hovah, which in this first part was the subject of the 
 Prophet's thoughts, — the office, namely, of bearing 
 witness for God, — the Messiah does not stand alone, 
 but is joined with His Church. For the Church, St. 
 Paul tells us, is His fulness, — the fulness of Him that 
 fillcth all in all ; and therefore it shares in His mis- 
 sion, that work only excepted which is Christ's special 
 and peculiar office. Of old, accordingly, the Jewish 
 Church was the appointed witness to. God's unity : 
 now the Christian Church proclaims the Father's love 
 who made us, the Son's sacrifice who redeemed us, 
 the Holy Ghost's indwelling, who sanctifies us. And 
 this, we shall hereafter find, is the subject of the 
 third portion of the prophecy, in which Isaiah de- 
 scribes the development of Judaism into Christianity, 
 and the final and glorious triumph of Christian priu- 
 
156 SERMON V. 
 
 ciples. And though, for the present, that triumph be 
 delayed, though Christianity be still limited in extent 
 and partial in influence, yet the days will come when 
 the Prophet's words shall be fully accomplished. Israel 
 had long to wait for their Messiah ; they had hoped 
 He would come immediately after the return from 
 exile : but they had still centuries of suffering to pass 
 through; and when He came, it was not as they had 
 expected, but in a better and more spiritual way. 
 And so of all the promises of the prophets, the ac- 
 complishment may seem slow to man's eagerness, but 
 finally they will be fulfilled in a better manner than 
 we could dare hope, and then will Christ's people 
 " possess the double : everlasting joy shall be upon 
 them." 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 Isaiah lii. 13. 
 
 "Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently ; He shall be ex- 
 alted and extolled, and be very Jiigh" 
 
 TN the verses immediately preceding the text, the 
 Prophet sets before us the image of a glorious 
 and triumphant march. The times of Judah's exile 
 are fulfilled ; her Deliverer has appeared ; and she 
 that had drunk at the Lord's hand the cup of His 
 fury, is now commanded to awake, and put on her 
 strength ; to clothe herself in her beautiful garments, 
 and prepare for her homeward journey. In the most 
 inspiriting words the Prophet tells her of her changed 
 circumstances : he bids her shake off the dust of 
 slavery ; exhorts her to arise as became one who was 
 now free, and seat herself upon her throne ; and loose 
 the bands of her neck, for no longer is she the captive 
 daughter of Zion. It is a time when her thoughts 
 naturally turn back to . the most glorious period of 
 her existence, when with mighty hand and out- 
 stretched arm God brought His people out of Egypt ; 
 and in reminding her of His mighty works then 
 wrought in her behalf, the Prophet gives her the as- 
 surance that her deliverance from her present bondage 
 shall be equally complete and glorious. And now, by 
 a sudden change of scene, he places us in Jerusalem. 
 
158 SERMON VI. 
 
 All there is excitement ; the remnant left in the land 
 have heard that the exiles are on their way ; hourly 
 they expect their appearance ; and watchmen upon 
 every height are looking for their approach. At 
 length, far off upon the hills which encircle the holy 
 city, a herald appears, announcing their arrival ; and 
 as they see him, they exclaim, " How beautiful upon 
 the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
 tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good 
 tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith 
 unto Zion, Thy God reign eth;" In the universal joy at 
 the meeting of those so long separated, "The watch- 
 men lift up the voice; with the voice they sing to- 
 gether : for they see eye to eye" — the remnant left in 
 the land see face to face the returning exiles — "now 
 that the Lord hath brought again Zion." Again and 
 again the Prophet exhorts them to rejoice, for " Je- 
 hovah hath comforted His people ; hath redeemed 
 Jerusalem ; hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes 
 of all the nations ; and caused all the ends of the earth 
 to see the salvation of Judah's God." And finally, 
 reverting to the exiles, changing the scene once more 
 from Jerusalem to Babylon, he bids the captives 
 commence their march : — " Depart ye, go ye out 
 from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of 
 the midst of her ; be ye clean, that bear the vessels 
 of the Lord. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor 
 go by flight : for Jehovah will go before you ; and the 
 God of Israel will be your rereward." 
 
 It is at the end of this magnificent description of 
 Judah's deliverance from Babylon and restoration to 
 
FORM OF THE PROPHECY. 
 
 l 59 
 
 her land, that Jehovah Himself in person addresses 
 His people : and again the words are the same as 
 so often have been spoken in the course of the pro- 
 phecy, — "Behold My Servant !" but they are accom- 
 panied by a deeper mystery. Before, in the forty- 
 second chapter, we had Messiah's meekness and gen- 
 tleness ; that " He should not strive nor cry ; that the 
 bruised reed He would not break, nor quench the 
 smoking flax." In the forty-ninth chapter we had 
 the declaration, that "in Him God would be glo- 
 rified," no longer in one people only, but through- 
 out the world : " It is a light thing that Thou 
 shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of 
 Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will 
 also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou 
 may est be My salvation unto the end of the earth." 
 Already, therefore, the voice of God has described the 
 Messiah's character, and the universality of His re- 
 demption ; and now He reveals the manner of that 
 heavenly plan whereby His Servant became His sal- 
 vation. He tells the mystery of a Messiah saving by 
 suffering; a mystery which to the Jew has proved 
 a stumbling-block, and to the Greek foolishness, but 
 which St. Paul affirms to be, "unto them which are 
 called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
 God, and the wisdom of God." 
 
 As regards the form of the prophecy, the last three 
 verses of the fifty-second chapter are the words of 
 Jehovah Himself: and in them we have a summary, 
 so to speak, of the longer explanation given by the 
 
160 SERMON VI. 
 
 Prophet in the first ten verses of the fifty -third chap- 
 ter : and then, once again, Jehovah speaks, and with 
 His own mouth completes the prophecy by declaring 
 Messiah's triumph: — " He shall see of the travail of 
 His soul, and shall be satisfied : by His knowledge 
 shall My righteous Servant justify many ; for He 
 shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide 
 Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide 
 the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured 
 out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with 
 the transgressors ; and He bare the sin of many, and 
 made intercession for the transgressors." 
 
 In all three parts alike, — whether in the opening 
 words of the Almighty ; or as step by step the Pro- 
 phet follows the Messiah in all the details of His life 
 of suffering, from His humble birth to His ignomini- 
 ous death, and in the reference which follows to His 
 Resurrection, when " He shall prolong His days ;" or 
 lastly, when once again, Jehovah in His own person 
 speaks of " Messiah's pouring out His soul unto death, 
 and bearing the sin of many :" — throughout, one, and 
 one only mystery, is consistently and uniformly set 
 before Christ's people ; and this I know not whether 
 it can be more exactly described than in the Apostle's 
 words, " that though He were a Son, yet learned He 
 obedience by the things which He suffered ; and being 
 made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation 
 unto all them that obey Him." " For it became Him, 
 for whom are all things, and by whom arc all things, 
 in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
 of their salvation perfect through sufferings." 
 
HUMILIATION OF JEHOVAH'S SERVANT. l6l 
 
 Consider, then, how this prophecy is introduced. 
 It follows upon a triumphant description of Israel's 
 deliverance ; it is spoken in the hour of a great 
 national rejoicing. All the previous degradation of 
 the holy people, — their exile, their slavery, their hope- 
 less misery, when, unable to find solace even in min- 
 strelsy, they sat beside the waters of Babylon and 
 wept, — all this is past, and God is giving them the 
 double for all their sins. At this moment of general 
 joy God in person speaks. He bids them look at 
 their Deliverer, at the Servant whom He had es- 
 pecially chosen to be the instrument of their restora- 
 tion. He is One in whom His soul delighteth ; who, 
 moreover, is to be exalted with threefold honours, 
 and kings, awe-struck and astonished, are to stand 
 abashed before Him. Yet at this time of joy, side 
 by side with words expressive of the highest glory 
 of this Servant, there is the strange and unexpected 
 announcement of His humiliation ; a tale of suffering 
 and contempt and rejection, of scourges and wound- 
 ing, of prison and a malefactor's death. Throughout 
 there is scarcely a word of joyful import ; but, like 
 that roll spread before another prophet, "it is written 
 within and without with lamentations, and mourning, 
 and woe." For, step by step, the Deliverer passes 
 through every form of humiliation, and contempt, 
 and pain. It is " the man of sorrows" whom we 
 see; one "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted ;" 
 " He is despised, and men hide their faces from 
 Him ;" " He is led speechless as a lamb to the 
 slaughter;" "He is cut off by an unrighteous judg- 
 
 M 
 
I 62 SERMON VI. 
 
 merit;" " He lies in the grave" — "is dead." Of 
 whom speaketh the Prophet this ? When, and where, 
 did the leaders of the returned from Babylon thus 
 suffer? Where is the record that Zerubbabel, or 
 Jesus the son of Josedek, or Ezra, or Nehemiah met 
 with so sad a fate ? Or, plainly, must we not apply 
 these words to a more spiritual deliverance, and say 
 with the Chaldee paraphrast, " These things are 
 spoken of King Messiah ;" and with Philip the Dea- 
 con, " begin with this same Scripture, and preach 
 unto men Jesus ?" 
 
 To the modern critics this has been a difficulty. 
 Denying inspiration, it follows, according to their 
 theory, that the prophets, as mere poets and preachers, 
 must adhere to the national idea of the Messiah ; and 
 this idea was that of a successful conqueror who would 
 introduce a golden age of happiness. That one of 
 them should contradict the national idea, should de- 
 scribe a suffering Messiah, one who was no conqueror, 
 no hero, but a meek and lowly sufferer, the example 
 of patient endurance unto death, plainly, in uninspired 
 men, was an impossibility. And therefore they argue 
 that "the Messianic interpretation is quite untenable ; 
 for the whole of the rest of the Old Testament is ig- 
 norant of a suffering Messiah, such as was this Servant 
 of Jehovah ; for in all confessedly Messianic passages 
 it describes Him as a theocratic king, distinguished 
 both by spiritual qualities, and also more especially 
 by power and good fortune, by honour and glory. 
 No other kind, therefore, of Messiah can come. For 
 the prophets, as the originators and fosterers of the 
 
A SUFFERING MESSIAH. 1 63 
 
 idea of a Messiah, meant it for the comfort and en- 
 couragement of the people in misfortune, to give 
 them joyful hope and confidence ; and they would 
 entirely have missed this end if they had so much 
 as hinted at the Messiah being a Person distinguished 
 by contempt only, and suffering and poverty. Rather 
 they would have produced just the contrary feeling, 
 especially among a people by no means inclined to 
 resignation and meekness V 
 
 The principle upon which this argument depends 
 plainly is, that the prophets were not moved by God 
 to declare the way of salvation, and had no other ob- 
 ject in their words than to rouse the patriotism of 
 their countrymen. Upon the believer in revelation, 
 who sees in the prophets a higher use than the mere 
 encouragement of the nation, the passage has just 
 the contrary effect ; for coming in so unlooked-for a 
 place, at the end of a song of joy, it convinces him 
 that such a description of suffering and sorrow was 
 inspired by God to lead men to that Saviour who died 
 for their sins, and in whom the Prophet's words had 
 an exact fulfilment. The idea of a suffering Messiah 
 would probably never have suggested itself naturally 
 to any one ; certainly not to one whose object was to 
 comfort the people. To the Jews it was always a dif- 
 ficulty, which they sought in various ways to evade : 
 even the Chaldee Paraphrast, while referring the pas- 
 sage to the Messiah, yet so alters the sense as to 
 rescue His person from the humiliation it describes. 
 And yet when Christ came, it was as a suffering 
 a Knobel, JEinl., in Jes. lii. 13. 
 M 2 
 
164 SERMON VI. 
 
 Messiah. Modern critics seek, indeed, to evade this 
 argument, and say that the representation which we 
 have of Christ in the Gospels was suggested by this 
 prophecy : but even so, it remains inexplicable how 
 the idea of a suffering Messiah arose. But it is by 
 no means true that this idea is peculiar to Isaiah : 
 it certainly nowhere else is so fully worked out as 
 in this prophecy, but it is ever a part of the Mes- 
 sianic idea throughout the Old Testament. Even in 
 the first prediction, of the woman's Seed bruising the 
 serpent's head, there is the idea of a painful struggle, 
 and of a victory which leaves the mark of sufferiug 
 upon the conqueror. And so it is always. But if 
 this idea was so repugnant to the Jews, that the 
 Apostles themselves, after our Lord's many conver- 
 sations with them concerning His Passion, yet needed 
 to be rebuked for their slowness of heart in believing 
 what the prophets had spoken, we may safely draw 
 the inference, that it was of no human origin, and 
 that Isaiah in this place checked the current of his 
 joyous emotions to give utterance to these words of 
 sorrow, because he was controlled by an influence 
 too powerful for him to resist. 
 
 For his words must have been very difficult for his 
 contemporaries to understand ; probably he himself 
 did not know fully what they meant : and those who 
 read them, must, like the Ethiopian eunuch, have 
 often wondered, and asked, Of whom he spake ? 
 But in their due time their meaning became plain ; 
 and from that day Isaiah has been the Prophet most 
 read and meditated upon. It was not so before 
 
THE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY. 1 65 
 
 the Incarnation ; Jeremiah was the great prophet 
 of previous times : but Isaiah is the especial gift 
 of the Jewish Church to Christian men; for the 
 Saviour's office, and* the whole plan of man's redemp- 
 tion in all its chief features, is nowhere pourtrayed 
 so clearly as in his prophecies. It was the book, 
 therefore, which St. Ambrose bade the youthful Au- 
 gustine study upon his conversion ; it has confirmed 
 the faith of believers in all ages of the Church ; and 
 doubtless will remain the sure proof of the inspiration 
 of the prophets, and the best explanation of the virtue 
 of Christ's sacrifice upon the cross, as long as the 
 Church shall last. 
 
 There is also a second point to be noticed of some 
 importance with respect to the place where this de- 
 scription of the Messiah's sufferings occurs. It is 
 at the end of the narrative of the triumphant return 
 of the exiles from Babylon. If, therefore, we reject 
 the Messianic interpretation, we are not at liberty to 
 wander here and there, and select " at our fancy some 
 sage or hero unto whom to apply the prophecy. Nei- 
 ther King Josiah, nor Jeremiah the Prophet, nor the 
 children of King Zedekiah lived after the return from 
 Babylon. If Baruch wrote these chapters as a threnody 
 in honour of his beloved master, it is an inexplicable 
 difficulty how he could describe him as leading the 
 exiles back from captivity ! Either, therefore, we 
 must adhere to the literal interpretation, — and in that 
 case Zerubbabel, Jesus the son of Josedek, Ezra, Ne- 
 hemiah, and Cyrus are the sole characters from whom 
 
1 66 SERMON VI. 
 
 to select the " Servant of Jehovah ;" or, with the 
 Jewish Church from times long antecedent to the 
 birth of our Lord, and the Christian Church through- 
 out its whole existence, we must adopt the spiritual 
 interpretation, and see in the return from Babylon 
 a type of the deliverance of mankind from captivity to 
 Satan, and in Jehovah's Servant " the Lord's Christ." 
 To abandon the spiritual interpretation, and ex- 
 pound the Bible as an ordinary book, is to Christians 
 an impossibility. It might indeed do away with much 
 diversity of opinion, and save men much debate. For 
 men do not debate about what they do not value, 
 and if the Bible were not a law to our consciences, 
 questions connected with it might indeed still be 
 discussed as matters of archaeological interest, but 
 men generally would have little interest in them. 
 Men debate every word and sentence in a law, and 
 give its phrases every possible meaning, because their 
 interests are affected by it ; and as long as the Bible 
 is a law, affecting us in every action of our lives, so 
 long men will scrutinize every word, and give it every 
 possible sense, correct and incorrect. But such con- 
 troversies are a proof of life, of earnestness, of reality : 
 and so long as men value the Bible, every possible 
 opinion will be held concerning every doctrine con- 
 tained, or apparently contained, in it. Take away its 
 value, and controversy will be at an end. The old 
 saying of the Proverbs will be fulfilled, that where 
 there are no oxen, the crib is clean. A Church with no 
 commission from God, no authority, no revealed truth, 
 no inspired Word, would be doubtless a very peaceful 
 
PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION. I 67 
 
 Church, would stir up 110 controversies, and occasion 
 no heart-burnings ; but she "would influence no minds, 
 awake no sympathies, gain no friends, make no ene- 
 mies, do no good, and be powerless even for evil. 
 She would be fit only, as salt that had lost its sa- 
 vour, to be cast out to the dunghill, and trampled 
 under foot of men. 
 
 But, as I said, Christians are not at liberty to deny 
 the spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament ; for 
 the New Testament authorizes this interpretation 
 everywhere. It is its principle that the facts of the 
 Old Testament happened unto the Jews for ensamples, 
 and are written for our admonition. They are not 
 mere facts of history, but lessons, teaching sometimes 
 moral truths, but more frequently the mysteries of the 
 Gospel. With what boldness of application does St. 
 Paul tell us that he would not have us ignorant that 
 the passage of the Eed Sea was a type of Christian 
 baptism, and that the water from the smitten rock 
 signified the blood flowing from Christ's side ! And 
 again, that Sarah represented the Christian Church, 
 and Hagar that of the Jews. As long therefore as we 
 profess obedience to the New Testament, so long we 
 must concede the principle, that the facts and doc- 
 trines and prophecies of the Old Testament are not to 
 be confined to the Jews, and their primary sense, but 
 find their only true and adequate fulfilment in the 
 Christian Church, and in Him who is its Head. 
 
 It is therefore an integral part of Christian interpre- 
 tation to ascribe a twofold character to the Church of 
 old. She had her historical and national existence, 
 
1 68 SERMON VI. 
 
 with her own fates and fortunes ; and she was also the 
 type of that dispensation in which the truths given 
 to her under a veil are seen face to face. And just as 
 of old her deliverance from Egypt typified the de- 
 liverance of mankind from the bondage of corruption, 
 and their admission into the glorious liberty of the 
 sons of God ; so this triumphant march of the exiles 
 from Babylon, bearing with pure and holy hands the 
 vessels of the Lord, was but faintly accomplished 
 when Ezra led from thence scarcely fifty thousand 
 souls. This messenger upon the mountains, publish- 
 ing a gospel of peace, the good tidings of salvation, 
 was but in shadow fulfilled in the herald who told the 
 poverty-stricken remnant at Jerusalem that their bre- 
 thren, footsore and weary with their way, were re- 
 turning, saddened by fast and mourning, to weep as 
 they laid the foundations of their house of God. And 
 equally the troubled fortunes 'of the city, — nobly as 
 its heroic people century after century battled, and 
 battled finally in vain, for its freedom, — form no satis- 
 factory conclusion to the bright pictures which filled 
 the Prophet's mind. As at first they built their wall 
 with the weapons of war in the one hand, while the 
 other plied the implements of peace ; so to the last 
 their lot was a struggle, an effort, till their nation and 
 polity were quenched in blood. 
 
 In past history, therefore, no adequate fulfilment can 
 be found, and either we have in the Old Testament 
 the gorgeous phantasies of poetry and the exagger- 
 ations of Oriental trope and metaphor, or it offers 
 unto us the sober and steady light of that word of 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPES SPIRITUAL. 1 69 
 
 prophecy, appealed to by St. Peter as a more sure 
 proof of the Saviour's mission than miracle itself. 
 And if the Prophet's words, couched often, it is true, 
 as regards their outward form, in the guise of the 
 noblest poetry, still do, word by word and sentence 
 by sentence, find a thorough and complete fulfilment 
 in our Lord, and in that dispensation of which He is 
 the Mediator, well may our faith rest upon them in 
 calm and unswerving confidence ; and, as we read of 
 the temporal deliverances of that chosen race of old, 
 whose fortunes prefigured the trials and difficulties, 
 and victories and onward progress both of the Chris- 
 tian Church and of the individual soul of each Chris- 
 tian, well may we elevate our hearts to the thought of 
 a better deliverance ; when the soul shall be for ever 
 redeemed from the bondage of corruption ; when it 
 shall cast off from its neck the bonds of those sins 
 which had bowed it down in degradation, and, shaking 
 itself free from the dust of earth, shall put on the 
 garments of holiness, and have its citizenship in that 
 heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Messiah is the 
 spiritual King. 
 
 The Jew, untaught by long chastisement, still looks 
 for a temporal deliverance ; still, as he reads the bright 
 pictures of future glory in the prophetic records, he 
 dreams of a return to the land of promise, and of an 
 earthly kingdom, the pomp and magnificence of which 
 shall far exceed the splendour of Solomon's reign. 
 The Christian thinks, or ought to think, of a deliver- 
 ance not of the body, but of the soul ; a victory over 
 the power of evil, over our inborn corruption, and 
 
170 SERMON VI. 
 
 which, though won in this world, shall attain to its 
 full reward only in the world to come. 
 
 Among the prophecies which prove that Jesus of 
 Nazareth was the Messiah, the present holds the most 
 important place. For the peculiar feature of the Chris- 
 tian dispensation is, that its Messiah, though He was 
 very God, yet humbled Himself; not merely to man's 
 estate, but to be lowly among men, and despised, and 
 finally to die, that He might save His people by suffer- 
 ing in their stead : and it is only after thus pour- 
 ing out His soul unto death that He attains to His 
 triumph, by rising from the dead and being exalted 
 to God's right hand as a Prince and a Saviour. Now, 
 while there are numerous passages, especially in the 
 Psalms, which bear witness to this mystery, still there 
 is none where it is so expressly and minutely set forth 
 as by Isaiah in the present prophecy ; and naturally 
 there is a constant reference to Isaiah's words, some- 
 times directly and sometimes indirectly, in all those 
 passages of the New Testament which treat of our 
 Lord's Passion. To convince His disciples of the 
 necessity of His suffering, — a truth which they were 
 so slow in learning, — our Lord Himself on more than 
 one occasion appealed in general terms to the prophe- 
 tic record : — " The Son of man goeth as it is written of 
 Him;" " Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things 
 that are written in the prophets concerning the Son 
 of man shall be accomplished;" "Thus it is written, 
 and thus it behoved Christ to suffer." It was not, 
 however, until they had been taught by His own 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THIS PROPHECY. 171 
 
 mou tli, in that walk to Emmaus, the meaning of the 
 prophetic declarations, and the Holy Ghost had subse- 
 quently opened their minds to understand the Scrip- 
 tures, that they were able to receive the plain mean- 
 ing of what the prophets had said ; but thenceforward 
 they ever prominently and directly taught, as the very 
 centre of the faith, the great truth revealed in this 
 chapter, that the Messiah is a Saviour, because "He 
 bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 
 
 Appealed to thus constantly in the New Testament, 
 and subsequently by all the Fathers of the Christian 
 Church, this prophecy of Isaiah holds the foremost 
 place among the Old Testament proofs of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah : for 
 the Gospel scheme of salvation rests upon His Passion. 
 If, therefore, it could be proved, either that Isaiah was 
 not speaking here of the Messiah, or that his words 
 are not adequately fulfilled in our Lord, we have no 
 clearer or stronger testimony to appeal to ; none upon 
 which our faith could rest with such assured confi- 
 dence. It is not indeed true that the argument from 
 prophecy depends upon any single passage ; still, if this 
 passage be taken from us, we have lost the strongest 
 bulwark and defence of the argument from prophecy 
 as a whole. 
 
 As was to be expected, therefore, in a matter of so 
 great importance, various attempts have been made to 
 invalidate its cogency. For, first of all, the Jews, 
 urged by the plain application of Isaiah's words to our 
 Lord, and compelled to own that the Old Testament 
 did contain the doctrine of a suffering Messiah, have 
 
IJ2 SERMON VI. 
 
 endeavoured to find some explanation, which might 
 serve at least to satisfy the minds of their own peo- 
 ple. And now that their writers no longer hold an 
 important place in the ranks of literature, yet, in the 
 restlessness of modern criticism, most of the schemes 
 which they originated have been reproduced by Chris- 
 tian authors, and supported by arguments sufficiently 
 specious to merit some attention, though based for the 
 most part upon suppositions only. 
 
 I propose therefore to-day, in the rest of this dis- 
 course, to give a slight sketch of the history of the 
 Jewish interpretation of this prophecy, in the belief 
 that it will conduce to the right understanding both 
 of the Gospel narrative, and also of the meaning of 
 the Prophet's words. 
 
 The Jewish interpretation, then, of this passage of 
 Holy Scripture naturally divides itself into three dis- 
 tinct eras : in the first of which we find the simple 
 Messianic exposition ; in the second the doctrine of 
 two Messiahs ; while the third offers us a host of dis- 
 cordant theories, the object of which was not so much 
 to find the true meaning of the prophecy, as to dis- 
 cover some way of obviating the arguments drawn from 
 it by Christian writers. Of these three periods, the 
 views held in the first and second are of native origin, 
 and unquestionably honest in their intention; while 
 those of the third were the result merely of controver- 
 sial necessities. 
 
 I. In the first and most ancient school of Jewish 
 interpretation, their expositors held consistently that 
 
THE CHALDEE PARAPHRASE. 1 73 
 
 the Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah's prophecy was the 
 Messiah, the son of David. As this is acknowledged 
 even by the teachers of the third school, it will not be 
 necessary to enter upon any formal proof; for they 
 seek to evade its force, not by denying the fact, but by 
 saying with Abravanel, "that the Chaldee Paraphrast 
 and the wise men of old gave not the genuine and 
 simple interpretation, but one mystical and secondary." 
 A fact of greater importance to observe is, that while 
 their ancient doctors teach that these prophecies do 
 refer to Messiah, they carefully explain away every 
 word which implies the notion of any pain or grief, or 
 suffering or humiliation, or contempt attaching itself 
 to Him. In the Targum, for instance, or Chaldee 
 Paraphrase of Jonathan, while every word which 
 speaks of glory and honour is claimed for the Mes- 
 siah, every contrary word is made to apply to the 
 Jewish nation. " Behold," he says, "My Servant the 
 Messiah shall prosper ; He shall be high, and great, 
 and strong exceedingly :" but it is the people of 
 Israel "whose aspect, as they long for His coming, 
 is dark among the nations, and their glory inferior to 
 that of the sons of men." Similarly in the fifty-third 
 chapter: "The holy generation, the elect of Israel, 
 pray for Israel's sins, and for their sake Judah's ini- 
 quities are forgiven: though we, the Jewish people, 
 be regarded as bruised, smitten from before God, and 
 afflicted." 
 
 The exact period at which this method of interpre- 
 tation first became current after the return from Baby- 
 lon, we cannot tell ; but as the Paraphrase in question 
 
174 SERMON VI. 
 
 is referred by all the chief authorities to a period 
 somewhat antecedent to the birth of our Lord, it 
 clearly shews what was the prevailing doctrine con- 
 cerning the Messiah at that time. The Jews believed 
 solely in a triumphant and glorious Deliverer, a great 
 national hero. And that such was the case we gather 
 also incidentally from the New Testament. For when 
 Christ spake, " signifying what death He should die, 
 the people answered Him, We have heard out of the 
 law, that the Messiah abideth for ever : and how sayest 
 Thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up ? Who is 
 this Son of Man?" Similarly, when He revealed to 
 His apostles the approaching mystery of His Passion, 
 " Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him." When, 
 too, the first act of His Passion commenced, though 
 He had immediately before foreshewn it to them in 
 the broken bread and the poured-out wine, they all 
 forsook Him and fled ; because their expectations 
 were still entirely set upon the hope of a temporal 
 restoration. And when, therefore, the disciples were 
 conversing upon their way to Emmaus, though tidings 
 had been brought them of His resurrection, yet were 
 their conclusions so obstinately foregone, that they 
 could talk only of their disappointment : " We trusted 
 that it had been He who would have redeemed 
 Israel." 
 
 To us, when we read the New Testament, with our 
 minds full of the many psalms and prophecies which 
 describe a suffering Messiah, it seems difficult to un- 
 derstand how it was that not only the mass of the 
 people, but also men like the apostles, were so offended 
 
JEWISH IDEA OF tHE MESSIAH. 1 75 
 
 at the thought of a suffering Christ, so obstinately 
 bent upon the expectation of an immediate restora- 
 tion of their national glory. But when we find that 
 the received teaching of the synagogue, probably, for 
 several centuries, had carefully explained away every 
 word indicative of Messiah's humiliation; and con- 
 sider, moreover, how strong an influence those doc- 
 trines exercise over us in which we have been brought 
 up, our surprise passes away. Especially as this teach- 
 ing had itself grown out of the national mind; for 
 from the time of the Babylonian exile and the com- 
 plete abandonment of idolatry, an intense pride had 
 taken possession of the hearts of the whole people ; 
 and though this had braced them up to many an act 
 of heroic valour, it had led them also to arrogate 
 to themselves too much from the intimate relation 
 in which they stood to God as the people of His 
 covenant. Thus they had even invented the dogma, 
 that every member of their race was sure of salvation. 
 There were, indeed, one or two sins which could ex- 
 clude even a Jew from Paradise, such, for instance, as 
 the denial of the existence of a God or of the divine 
 authority of the Mosaic Law ; but short of this, every 
 descendant of Abraham was sure of salvation. The 
 Messiah, therefore, was not connected in their minds 
 with the idea of spiritual blessings ; His mission was 
 not to raise mankind from their lost state by nature, 
 and bring them into spiritual communion with God : 
 He was simply a national chieftain, a warrior king, 
 a conqueror, whose arms would deluge continents 
 with the blood of their enemies, and place their 
 
176 SERMON VI. 
 
 nation npon the highest pinnacle of worldly magni- 
 ficence. 
 
 To uproot so great an error, and to substitute spi- 
 ritual for temporal blessings, the conviction of sin for 
 self-righteousness, love to all mankind in the place of 
 an intense and selfish patriotism, — in one word, to lead 
 men to a Messiah saving the souls of Jew and Gentile 
 alike by His humiliation, in the place of a hero who 
 by feats of arms would gratify their deep-set rancour 
 against their enemies and aggrandize their nation, 
 thi& was the task which the first preachers of Chris- 
 tianity had to accomplish. It was a lesson which 
 they themselves had found it hard to learn, and the 
 first preaching of it was ever enough to make the 
 bulk of the Jews their stern and determined foes. 
 
 But if such was the current state of feeling among 
 the Jews, and the received teaching of their scribes, 
 how utterly without foundation was that exploded 
 fallacy, that the life and sufferings of our Lord were 
 not matters of fact, but a myth which grew out of the 
 popular mind. It assumes that the Jews put upon 
 the Scriptures of the Old Testament the same inter- 
 pretation that we do; and that the teaching of the 
 synagogue, when it could but at most feel after the 
 truth, was identical with the teaching of the Church, 
 now that the words of the Psalms and the Prophets 
 have been fulfilled. On the contrary, we know that 
 the whole course of Jewish literature, till long after 
 our Saviour's birth, absolutely ignored the idea of 
 a suffering Messiah, and that the great stumbling- 
 block in the way of the Jews was that our Lord con- 
 
THEORY OF TWO MESSIAHS. I 77 
 
 tradicted all their most cherished hopes. Never had 
 men more to unlearn than they had, before they could 
 take Christ's yoke upon them, and learn of Him to be 
 meek and lowly in heart, and count it worthy of all 
 joy when " for conscience toward God, they endured 
 grief, suffering wrongfully : as being even thereunto 
 called, because their Messiah also had suffered for 
 them, and left them an example that they should 
 follow His steps." 
 
 II. But gradually the constant examination of the 
 prophecies led to the second stage of Jewish interpre- 
 tation, in which they taught that there would be two 
 Messiahs, one the son of David, and the other the 
 son of Joseph. The passage which chiefly led them 
 to this theory is found in Zech. xii. 10 — 12, where 
 we read, that "they shall look upon Me whom they 
 have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one 
 mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness 
 for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn : 
 in that day there shall be a great mourning .... and 
 the land shall mourn." In both Talmuds this passage 
 is proposed for examination ; and in the earlier, or Je- 
 rusalem Talmud, written in the third century of our era, 
 we find only the ancient interpretation. " It may sig- 
 nify," we read, " the mourning over the Messiah, or 
 the mourning caused by inbred lust." But gradually 
 another interpretation grew up ; and in the Babylonian 
 Talmud, collected in the seventh century, we read 
 that this mourning is "because of Messiah, the son 
 of Joseph, who shall be slain." And from this time 
 
 N 
 
178 SERMON VI. 
 
 for several centuries it was the current doctrine that 
 there were to be two Messiahs, to the one of whom 
 they applied every passage of prophecy expressive of 
 suffering, while to Messiah -the son of David belonged 
 all such as speak of glory and triumph. 
 
 The proofs which they adduce for this double Mes- 
 siahship are but slight : they say, for instance, that 
 the sceptre which shall not depart from Judah is the 
 son of David, but that the lawgiver from between his 
 feet is the son of Joseph. And again : as God of old 
 led His people from Egypt by the hands of Moses and 
 Aaron, so shall their deliverance from their present 
 worse captivity unto Edom, — by which they mean the 
 Roman empire, — be the work of two Messiahs. 
 
 But possibly this theory is not to be looked upon as 
 a formal doctrine, but rather as an attempt to reconcile 
 apparent discrepancies in the prophecies, coupled with 
 the wish to assign some part in their national deliver- 
 ance to the ten tribes. For at this era the belief was 
 generally prevalent among the Jews, that the ten 
 tribes would shortly be restored to their inheritance, 
 and that their leader would be one sprung from them- 
 selves ; and therefore they called him the son of Jo- 
 seph, and sometimes the son of Ephraim, not as being 
 born of a father of that name, but because the ten 
 tribes are often collectively spoken of by the prophets 
 as Joseph, or Ephraim. There is in it therefore no 
 reference whatsoever to the putative father of our 
 Lord ; it simply means that he was to be the leader 
 of the ten tribes ; and whenever they speak of him by 
 his proper name they call him, sometimes Nehemiah 
 
MESSIAH-BEN-JOSEPH. 1 79 
 
 the son of Huriel, and sometimes Menachem the son 
 of Ammiel. 
 
 Messiah the Son of Joseph, therefore, is the hero 
 and restorer of the ten tribes ; and to him they apply- 
 all those sorrows and humiliations which their national 
 pride made them indignantly reject from the character 
 of Messiah-ben-David. They describe the son of Jo- 
 seph, therefore, in terms expressive of the most abject 
 misery, wandering from place to place as a mendicant, 
 squalid and in want, and struck even with leprosy — 
 an idea which they take from Isa, liii. 4, where the 
 word translated in our version " stricken" is by many 
 rendered "leprous;" as, for instance, in the Latin 
 Vulgate, " JSos putavimus Eum quasi leprosum." And 
 another part of this chapter serves as the groundwork 
 for the further notion, that he shall sit as a beggar 
 at the gates of Eome, and there bind up the sores of 
 a crowd of lepers congregated round him. 
 
 But after a period of time passed thus in misery, 
 a few of the dispersed of the ten tribes adopt him as 
 their leader, and at their head he begins a war with 
 the Eoman Empire, slays its king, spoils the palace of 
 Julian, in which he finds the sacred vessels plundered 
 from the temple, and returns in triumph to Jerusalem. 
 Thence he next marches to take vengeance upon the 
 heathen, and puts to death the Gentile inhabitants of 
 all the towns in Palestine, from Damascus to Ascalon, 
 and by this deed strikes terror into all the earth. 
 These labours are called by the Jews the " sorrows of 
 Messiah," and the greatest soon follows : for an ante- 
 christ, an ante-messiah arises, named Armillus, (the 
 
 n2 
 
I 0O SERMON VI. 
 
 meaning of which title I have already explained,) who 
 fulfils the prophecies of Ezekiel by stirring up the 
 hosts of Gog and Magog to battle ; and though they 
 are at first defeated with great slaughter, yet finally 
 they prevail, and put Messiah-ben-Joseph with his 
 army to the sword, and as they march onward from 
 the battle-field towards Jerusalem, the fearful mourn- 
 ing takes place of which Zechariah speaks. It is a 
 time of terrible misery, and the destruction of every 
 Jew seems inevitable ; but at its height the trumpet 
 of the Archangel Michael sounds, and at its first blast, 
 Messiah-ben-David and Elijah appear, who defeat 
 Armillus, and slay both him and his army with an 
 incredible slaughter. And quickly the trumpet again 
 sounds, and all the dead Israelites arise to take part 
 in their national restoration, and among them Messiah- 
 ben- Joseph: and at the third blast, the dispersed of 
 the ten tribes assemble, and the era of Jewish uni- 
 versal empire begins. 
 
 Upon no point are the Jews much more at variance 
 among themselves than upon the nature of this resur- 
 rection, and the duration of the period which must 
 intervene between it and the general resurrection. 
 Among many conflicting theories, perhaps the one 
 most generally received is, that it will be reserved as 
 a special privilege for the more holy and upright mem- 
 bers of their race, such as are worthy to share in the 
 glories of so great a triumph ; while the careless and 
 negligent will still lie in their graves till the general 
 resurrection, in which some of the more liberal of their 
 expositors permit even the Gentiles to share. 
 
THIRD STAGE OF JEWISH INTERPRETATION. 1 8 I 
 
 Such then were the figments with which the Jews 
 solaced themselves during the long centuries of their 
 bitter degradation, when everywhere they were the 
 mark for scorn, and contumely, and wrong, from Chris- 
 tian and Mohammedan alike. But whether these 
 notions were originally put forth seriously, or were 
 not rather intended by the older expositors as a sort 
 of allegory, is capable of doubt. In course of time, 
 however, they were received as authoritative, and 
 taught by their chief writers as such, though, as 
 their fortunes changed, the outlines of the story were 
 altered, and new developments added to suit it to 
 their needs. But these we need not follow : the one 
 important fact to notice is, that the independent study 
 of their Scriptures did lead them to the doctrine of 
 a suffering Messiah. True to their national tradition, 
 they carefully separated every notion of humiliation 
 from their chief Messiah, David's son ; but they ac- 
 knowledged that the tale of suffering was there : they 
 distorted it, invented for themselves a new Messiah, 
 an inferior hero, sprung from the ten tribes ; but in 
 describing him they took their ideas from the words 
 of the prophets, and by the main features of his his- 
 tory owned that the low estate of the Messiah, his 
 sufferings and death, were truly written in their 
 prophetic books. 
 
 III. But in the tenth and subsequent centuries, 
 finding themselves pressed by the arguments of Chris- 
 tian writers, — who shewed them out of their own 
 books that their earlier authors had applied to Mes- 
 
I 82 SERMON VI. 
 
 siah-ben-David the very passages which they referred 
 to Messiah-ben-Joseph, and thence drew the conclusion 
 that the Jewish Scriptures did contain the doctrine of 
 a Lamb of God, who, by dying, should take away the 
 sins of the world, — their Eabbies had no other re- 
 source than to seek for some other interpretation. 
 Their old theories were proving untenable; many of 
 their ablest minds were quitting their communion ; 
 and it was therefore incumbent upon them to pro- 
 vide some popular explanation of their holy books, suf- 
 ficiently specious to satisfy the minds of the gene- 
 rality. Hitherto they had been supported by the 
 hope of the immediate coming of their hero ; they 
 had fixed date after date for his appearing, but he 
 still delayed; and it was but mortifying to be told 
 that their restoration was thus indefinitely deferred 
 because of their sins. Under such circumstances their 
 faith was neither so simple nor so earnest as it had 
 been before ; and a cold and sceptical spirit generally 
 prevailed even in those writers who are still familiarly 
 known among us as having at this period placed the 
 Jewish name foremost both in science and literature, 
 and maintained it there for some centuries. But the 
 national feeling was still strong among them, — for cen- 
 turies of ill-usage had firmly knit everywhere Jew 
 to Jew, — and they prepared still to defend their tra- 
 ditions : but their lessons were no longer addressed to 
 disciples willing to accept their teaching upon their 
 mere authority ; and besides, they were face to face 
 with Christians, arguing with them from their own 
 books. They must give proof, therefore, or the sem- 
 
JEWISH THEORIES. I 83 
 
 blance of proof, and their arguments must be suf- 
 ficiently specious to make their people ready still to 
 endure persecution without the secret misgiving that 
 possibly their Messiah had already come. 
 
 While, then, in the services of their synagogue this 
 passage of Isaiah is still applied to the Messiah, and 
 its Messianic interpretation is thus the sole authorized 
 doctrine, they argued that this was but a mere appli- 
 cation of it, and not the primary meaning. It was, they 
 said, a mystical interpretation, and as such only to be 
 received. And so far there is a consent among them : 
 but what was the genuine and proper interpretation 
 was a question upon which they found it harder to 
 agree. For some thought that a person was clearly 
 meant, and therefore looked for one whose history bore 
 some resemblance to the Prophet's words ; and selected 
 Uzziah, because of his leprosy ; or Josiah, because of 
 his early death ; or the Prophet Jeremiah, or Isaiah ; 
 or the fabulous martyr, Akibah : while others, with 
 more show of argument, taught that the Servant of 
 Jehovah signified the Jewish nation: either, in the 
 first place, collectively, — and this is the most generally 
 received view; or, secondly > as represented by the just 
 and pious portion among them ; or, thirdly, by the 
 prophetic order. 
 
 I need scarcely enter at any length upon these 
 views : enough to say, that no person can be found in 
 Jewish history who is not altogether too small and 
 unworthy to be the theme of these prophecies. IIow 
 can King Josiah be said to have been brought as 
 a lamb to the slaughter, when he fell in a battle of his 
 
184 SEEM0N VI. 
 
 own seeking? Or what share had he in the return 
 from Babylon ? Of Isaiah we know nothing to j ustify 
 us in supposing that his life was marked by any espe- 
 cial degree of suffering, and the tradition of his death 
 is simply fabulous ; for, as he flees from King Manasseh, 
 he is swallowed by a cedar-tree, and the King com- 
 mands the cedar-tree to be sawn asunder, and as the 
 workmen obey the command blood flows from the 
 wound. As for the martyr Akibah, he was apparently 
 an allegorical personage, with no real historical exist- 
 ence, and the question therefore would still remain un- 
 answered whom the Prophet really meant. As for the 
 notion that it was Jeremiah, we might well say, with 
 the German critics, that it scarcely deserves mention- 
 ing^ were it not that it has been again put forward 
 by the author of " God in History," as a most notable 
 discovery ; but it requires so many suppositions to be 
 first granted, that we can scarcely regard the theory 
 as seriously intended. For we must assume that 
 Baruch was the author of the last twenty-seven chap- 
 ters of Isaiah : and that though thus commissioned to 
 declare the calling of Cyrus, and the restoration from 
 Babylon, yet that his name was thought unworthy of 
 record, while Obadiah's name was preserved, though 
 he -wrote but a single chapter, and Haggai's and Mala- 
 chi's, though neither of them occupied so distinguished 
 a place in Jewish history as that of Jeremiah's minis- 
 ter. "We have further to assume in Baruch the ex- 
 istence of the same wonderfully balanced powers which 
 are so remarkable in the true Isaiah. Every other 
 b llciiikc, Die mes. Weis. lei den Proph.) ii. 43. 
 
TRADITIONS CONCERNING JEREMIAH. 1 85 
 
 prophet excels in some one faculty and has his own 
 peculiar turn of genius, Isaiah equals each one sepa- 
 rately in his own master gift : and the same extraor- 
 dinary versatility of power is granted by Ewald — the 
 critic best qualified to speak upon such subjects — of 
 the author of these last twenty-seven chapters. Surely 
 so great a prophet, commissioned to declare such 
 weighty truths, the author of such convincing argu- 
 ments against idolatry, and possessed of such extraor- 
 dinary powers, would never have been confined by 
 Jewish tradition to so inferior a place as that which 
 he at present holds. It is further necessary to assume 
 that he survived Jeremiah ; but the Jewish tradition 
 is, that after the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar 
 he and Baruch withdrew to Babylon together c ; or, as 
 others say, to Judeea d , and that Jeremiah there lived to 
 an extreme old age. Certainly if the last four verses 
 of his prophecy e are genuine, this must have been the 
 case; but perhaps too great uncertainty rests upon 
 them for us to be able to lay much stress upon their 
 authority. But in opposition to the Jewish account 
 Bunsen resuscitates a tradition recorded by one or two 
 Christian Fathers', that Jeremiah was stoned by the 
 Jews at Tahpanhes ; and he accuses the Jews of wil- 
 fully concealing this national crime; and Josephus, 
 who is entirely silent upon the matter, is dismissed as 
 being sly g . But a tradition, first mentioned nine or 
 ten centuries after the supposed fact, and entirely un- 
 supported by the people to whom it referred, and who 
 
 ■ Seder Olam Eabba, ch. 26. d Sal. Jarcbi. e ch. lii. 31—34. 
 f Tertull. adv. Gnost., c. 8 ; Hieron. adv. Joviii., ii. 37. g Klug. 
 
I 86 SERMON VI. 
 
 were by no means disposed to hide their national de- 
 linquencies, deserves very little consideration. Cer- 
 tainly no one who remembers the place which Jeremiah 
 held among his countrymen after the return from 
 exile ; how they believed that he had concealed the 
 ark, and Urim and Thummim, and sacred fire; how 
 they thought he was still alive, and would again 
 appear ; how many said even of our Lord that He was 
 Jeremiah; and how he was the " grey-haired prophet 
 of their visions, exceeding glorious, and of a wonder- 
 ful and excellent majesty, who summoned Judas 
 Maccabeus to defend his country, and girt him with 
 a golden sword," — no one who remembers these things 
 can doubt but that, if he had been stoned by his country- 
 men, they would have seen in the misfortunes which 
 befel them at the hand of the Syrian kings the pun- 
 ishment of so great a crime, and have explained by it, 
 to themselves, the extreme difference between their 
 actual state and that which had been predicted by the 
 prophets. 
 
 We may dismiss Bunsen's theory, therefore, as built 
 upon too many aud too improbable conjectures to 
 satisfy any one who requires reasonable grounds for 
 what he believes : and I have previously shewn that 
 it is as entirely contradicted by internal as it is un- 
 supported by external evidence. Far more important 
 is their view who consider that by the servant of 
 Jehovah is signified the Jewish nation. We may 
 even fairly describe this as the received Jewish ex- 
 position ; for whether it be the nation collectively, 
 or some special portion of it, is a matter simply of 
 
jehovah's servant the church. i87 
 
 detail, and nearly all their chief writers finally set- 
 tled npon one or other of these theories. It is more- 
 over, I think, undeniable, that in the first portion 
 there are passages in which the servant of Jehovah 
 does signify primarily the Jewish Church, and fully 
 and finally the Christian Church. The question is, 
 whether this explanation exhausts the meaning ; 
 whether the description of Jehovah's servant does 
 not go far beyond it, and describe a person who can 
 be no other than our Lord ? Especially in the second 
 portion we may demand, whether there is a single 
 passage applicable to the people of Israel, or which 
 does not directly contradict this idea ? It is too or- 
 dinary a thing for the prophets to begin with some 
 minor and lower theme, and rise from it to one vast 
 spiritual and eternal, for us to be astonished at 
 Isaiah's commencing with the office of the Jewish 
 Church to proclaim divine truth to the Gentiles, and 
 ending with Him who is the Truth, the Teacher in 
 whom all truth centres. Doubtless the mission of 
 the Jewish Church was in a measure the same as that 
 of Christ. She was His witness to the heathen, and 
 many truths were confided to her keeping, some of 
 which she was to proclaim to those around her, while 
 others were to be recorded for the future proof of the 
 Messiah's mission. In this way she was a fellow- 
 worker with Christ and a sharer in His office ; and still 
 more so is the Christian Church, and therefore she is 
 described by St. Paul as the body of which He is the 
 Head — as forming, that is, one organic whole with 
 Him, and co-operating with Him in His work. 
 
J 88 SEEMON VI. 
 
 We have before seen that the Jews themselves felt 
 great difficulty in confining the exposition of Jehovah's 
 servant to their nation ; and virtually confessed as 
 much, by the strangeness of their theory respecting 
 the virtue of the sufferings which they are at present 
 undergoing. They clearly saw that the sufferings 
 described in the fifty-third chapter are vicarious, and 
 had no alternative, therefore, but to shew that their 
 nation was bearing the punishment of sins committed 
 by others, who necessarily must be the heathen : but 
 nothing but the exigencies of controversy could have 
 produced such a theory, especially at a time when 
 they were also teaching that the delay in the Mes- 
 siah's coming was owing to their own sins. But 
 omitting this, there are passages in which Jehovah's 
 servant and the Jewish nation are clearly distin- 
 guished. Thus we read, "It is a light thing that 
 thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 
 of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I 
 will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that 
 thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the 
 earth h ." Again, He was "formed from the womb 
 to be Jehovah's servant, to bring Jacob again to 
 Him 1 ." He is distinguished even from those who 
 fear God : for the Prophet asks, " Who is among 
 you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of 
 His servant j ?" He is even "abhorred of the na- 
 tion 1 ";" He is "given, moreover, for a witness to 
 the people, a leader and commander to the people V 
 
 h Isa. xlix. 6. ' lb. 5. j lb. 1. 10. 
 
 K lb. xlix. 7. ' lb. lv. 4. 
 
jehovah's servant not the Jewish nation. 189 
 
 All these passages are clearly irreconcileable with 
 the theory that He was also the nation, or identical 
 with any select portion of it. And equally is the de- 
 scription of His office as a whole. There are, indeed, 
 parts of the Messiah's office which His Church shares 
 with Him : but there are others peculiar to Him ; as, 
 for instance, that He suffers a vicarious death™ ; that 
 He makes intercession for sinners 11 , and for Zion ; 
 that He is a covenant of the people p ; and after His 
 humiliation is worshipped by kings and princes q , 
 restores Israel r , and is the salvation also of the Gen- 
 tiles and the whole world 9 . In these and many more 
 such particulars the Prophet plainly is speaking of 
 the personal office of the Messiah ; but, above all, 
 where He describes His sinlessness, and that He is 
 therefore the sole Saviour : " All we like sheep have 
 gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own 
 way, and Jehovah hath laid upon Him the iniquity 
 of us all 1 ." It is not merely the Gentiles who have 
 gone astray ; "all we," God's own people, have also 
 broken the law; Jews as well as Gentiles, " are all 
 under sin:" and opposite to them stands the One 
 Man who alone was without sin ; " Who looked there- 
 fore, and there was none to help ; and wondered that 
 there was none to uphold : therefore His own arm 
 brought salvation unto Him ; and His fury, it up- 
 held Him." 
 
 The minor, therefore, and secondary application of 
 Isaiah's words to the Jewish nation, is only possible 
 
 ra Isa.liii. 4— 6. n lb. liii. 12. ° lb. lxii. 1. p lb. xlix. 8. 
 i lb. 7. r lb. xlix. 6. 8 lb. xlii. 1, 4, 6. * lb. liii. 6. 
 
190 SERMON VI. 
 
 at the commencement of the prophecy. Even there 
 it does not militate against the belief that in Christ, 
 and Christ only, the words of the Prophet find their 
 complete fulfilment. For they belonged to Israel only 
 as it shared in Christ's office, and prefigured it. If the 
 servants are joined with their Master in doing His 
 work, they must not usurp 'His place. Though they 
 can bear tidings of Him, and carry His salvation to 
 the ends of the earth, yet He alone can be the Saviour ; 
 for He alone can make satisfaction for sins. In His 
 agony in the garden He withdrew even from His 
 favourite disciples ; and upon the cross He alone was 
 lifted up, that He might draw all men unto Him. 
 
 Such then, in its main outlines, has been the course 
 of Jewish thought upon this and the corresponding 
 prophecies of their Scriptures. At first, the undoubt- 
 ing application of them throughout many centuries 
 to the Messiah, but with the obstinate determination 
 to deny His humiliation, and see in Him a triumphant 
 Deliverer. When this proved beyond the power of 
 argument, the endeavour was made to separate the 
 prophecies into two portions, and assign them to dif- 
 ferent persons, to a suffering and a triumphant Mes- 
 siah. In the third and last era they were explained 
 away. To the Christian these prophecies are the 
 source of ever-increasing confidence. The more he 
 studies them, the more he is convinced that they are 
 not the mere longings after a national hero ; that no 
 merely national literature could have described its ex- 
 pected deliverer as One " whom man despised, whom 
 
CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 the nation abhorred :" for so strange a phenomenon 
 he can find no explanation, save that the " Scripture 
 was given by inspiration of God," and that the pro- 
 phets, moved by the Holy Ghost, spake of a Sa- 
 viour, who " made Himself an offering for sin," and 
 who therefore sees an ever-increasing seed in those 
 who are adopted to be God's children, and in whose 
 hands the pleasure of that Lord who " willeth not 
 the death of the sinner, but that he should rather 
 turn from his sin, and be saved," shall prosper. 
 
SEEMON TIL 
 
 Isaiah liii. 4. 
 
 " Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : 
 yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and 
 afflicted" 
 
 TTPON a previous occasion, in addressing you upon 
 that portion of Isaiah's final prophecy which is 
 contained in the fifty -second and fifty-third chapters, 
 I gave a slight sketch of the history of its Jewish 
 interpretation ; and I then shewed that three distinct 
 eras may be traced in the course of Jewish thought 
 upon the subject, of which two were of native origin, 
 while the third was scarcely more than an endeavour 
 to discover some theory sufficiently specious to oppose 
 to the arguments of Christian controversialists. In 
 the first of these stages, commencing at a period an- 
 terior to the birth of our Lord, and continuing until 
 some time subsequent to the Jerusalem Talmud, there 
 was the unhesitating acknowledgment, that the Ser- 
 vant of Jehovah described in the last twenty-seven 
 chapters of the Book of Isaiah, was the Messiah : 
 but joined with it was the endeavour to separate 
 from Him every note and mark of suffering ; so that 
 in the Chaldee Paraphrase and other ancient autho- 
 rities we find the most forced and unnatural attempts 
 
EXPECTATIONS OP THE JEWS. 1 93 
 
 to give some other explanation to all those words in 
 the prophets which shewed that " it behoved Messiah 
 to suffer 3 ." And this theory, that the Messiah was 
 to be merely a triumphant hero, grew out of the set- 
 tled convictions of the national mind ; for from the 
 time of the return from Babylon they had kept God's 
 covenant perfectly in matters external. Their old ido- 
 latrous tendencies had entirely ceased, and wherever 
 they were dispersed they offered a pure and holy 
 worship to the one true God. Nevertheless they 
 were still oppressed ; the heathen often trampled the 
 holy city under foot, profaned their altars, and forbade 
 their rites ; and a garrison held the city of David for 
 many years even after the triumphs of Judas Macca- 
 beus. It followed, therefore, that the same justice of 
 God which in old time had punished them for lapsing 
 into idolatry, must now give them a corresponding 
 reward ; and that the heathen who persecuted them, 
 now that they were true to the covenant, must be 
 overtaken by a vengeance more marked and terrible 
 than that of Nineveh and Babylon. It was a thing 
 contrary to every feeling of their minds to suppose 
 that they would be compensated for their sufferings 
 by the abolition of their exclusive privileges; that 
 the Gentiles who oppressed them would be admitted 
 to share their covenant on equal terms ; and that 
 henceforward he was not to be a Jew who was one 
 outwardly, nor circumcision that made in the flesh 
 by hands. Not such thoughts nerved the Maccabees 
 
 a Luke xxiv. 46. 
 
 
194 SERMON VII. 
 
 to their heroic struggle, but a deep, narrow, and 
 exclusive patriotism ; the firm conviction that they 
 were the people of the covenant, were fighting God's 
 battles, and putting His enemies to the sword. But 
 the time had come when God's worshippers must wor- 
 ship Him in spirit and in truth ; when the temporal 
 sanctions of the covenant must be done away, and 
 spiritual hopes substituted in their place. And many 
 of the Jews observed the signs of the times, and ac- 
 cepted for a Saviour a suffering Messiah, and bore far 
 and wide the tidings of His salvation : but not so 
 the nation as a whole ; nor could they even learn the 
 lesson when the Eomans destroyed their temple, and 
 abolished the daily sacrifice, and no Maccabees arose 
 for their defence, though their zeal burnt as hotly as 
 in times of old. 
 
 But however natural might be this expectation of 
 a triumphant Messiah, to defeat their enemies, and 
 give them the earthly reward which they had earned, 
 it was nevertheless too thoroughly opposed to the 
 teaching of their sacred books to be able to endure 
 the test of an impartial examination: and therefore 
 in the later, or Babylonian Talmud, traces are found 
 of an attempt to reconcile the statements of the Scrip- 
 tures with their national convictions ; and the theory 
 subsequently was developed, and remained current 
 for some centuries. According to this adaptation of 
 the prophecies, there were to be two Messiahs, one 
 of whom, sprung from the ten tribes, and therefore 
 called the son of Joseph, was to be the first to call 
 the Jews to arms ; but, after a succession of victories, 
 
DOCTRINE OF A SUFFERING MESSIAH. 1 95 
 
 and the execution of a fearful retaliation upon all 
 Gentiles dwelling in the Holy Land, he was finally 
 to be defeated and slain. Thereupon was to follow 
 that mourning at Jerusalem described by the Prophet 
 Zechariah. But this grief would be but of short du- 
 ration ; for Messiah-ben-David would appear, whose 
 more successful strategy, aided by supernatural power, 
 would quickly destroy his enemies, and enable him 
 to found a universal empire, the offices and emolu- 
 ments of which the Jews were to be called even from 
 their graves to share. 
 
 But when, in the West, the Jews came into closer 
 contact with Christianity, these notions could no 
 longer be seriously entertained. Their Messiahs were 
 at most but successful generals, with no higher aim 
 than the prizes of victorious ambition; and in de- 
 scribing their battles, the Jewish doctors, with too 
 good reason, perhaps, for bitter rancour against their 
 persecutors, had allowed their imaginations to revel in 
 scenes of bloodshed, and pillage, and rapine. Against 
 such expositions the minds of their own more thought- 
 ful people revolted, and preferred, with the Christians, 
 to take for their Messiah One who was a lowly suf- 
 ferer, and who taught His disciples to set their affec- 
 tion on heavenly things, and not on the things of this 
 world. And this fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was the 
 very centre of the Christian doctrine of a Messiah 
 saving by suffering ; and many Jews, in committing 
 to writing the reasons of their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity, acknowledged that it was its perusal which 
 had shaken their faith in their old creed and teachers. 
 
 o2 
 
196 SERMON VII. 
 
 It became necessary, therefore, for their doctors to 
 invent some new interpretation, which would both ad- 
 here more closely to the terms of the prophecy than 
 had been the case with their allegorizing fancies of 
 old, and also be specious enough to satisfy the minds 
 of their own hesitating followers. But for a time 
 their theories were not very successful : for, as the Pro- 
 phet's words seemed plainly to describe a person, some 
 thought that Uzziah was meant, because after a reign 
 of great glory he was stricken with leprosy ; and 
 the Prophet's word, rendered in our Version simply 
 " stricken," would naturally suggest to a Jew the 
 thought of this disease, because the substantive de- 
 rived from the same root is the word repeatedly used 
 in Leviticus for the mark or spot, by the discovery of 
 which the priest's judgment was to be decided in his 
 official examination of lepers. But as Uzziah's punish- 
 ment was occasioned by his own sin, and was followed 
 by no restoration, others explained the prophecy of 
 Hezekiah, at the time of his sickness, supposing that 
 the premature death which threatened him was a 
 penalty for the sins of the nation, unworthy of so 
 good a king ; but, being restored by the mediation 
 of Isaiah, " he prolonged his days :" while others 
 sought in Josiah, and Cyrus, and Isaiah, and* Jere- 
 miah, resemblances which they hoped would justify 
 them in claiming for one or other of them the honour 
 of being Jehovah's servant. But when these theories 
 were all met by unanswerable difficulties, they gra- 
 dually came to the conclusion that the Prophet was 
 speaking of the whole Jewish people ; whose present 
 
COUNTEK-THEOKIES. 1 9 7 
 
 exile is not, they argue, the punishment of their 
 own sins, as was the captivity of Babylon, but a vica- 
 rious bearing of the Gentiles' sins ; by the merits of 
 which the whole world will finally be reconciled to 
 the Jewish God, and the Gentiles admitted to share 
 the blessings of their covenant, — though of course 
 upon an humble and inferior footing. 
 
 These views have in the present day a twofold im- 
 portance ; for first it is necessary for us to know, in 
 dealing with the Jews, what are the views which they 
 hold. The ill-success of Christian missionaries may 
 often be owing to their setting crudely forth their own 
 or the popular view of some Christian doctrine, with- 
 out making themselves acquainted with the state of 
 their hearers' minds, and the arguments current among 
 them which serve to neutralize the force of the mis- 
 sionary's teaching. Owing to some such fault it is 
 that, as a general rule, in the present day Christianity 
 makes but a slight impression upon any civilized com- 
 munity possessed of a literature of its own. Whether 
 the people be Mohammedan, or Hindu, or Jew, in all 
 cases they have a counter theory, entrenched behind 
 which they listen to the missionary's words, and smile 
 in themselves at what they have been taught to re- 
 gard as exploded fallacies. They require for their 
 conversion men like St. Paul, who had been brought 
 up at the feet of Gamaliel and knew the whole system 
 and theory of his opponents : and until men will thus 
 learn the real views of those whose minds they wish 
 to influence, they must expect to find their labours 
 very barren of results. So then of the Jews, while the 
 Christian points to their long humiliation as the fulfil- 
 
198 SERMON VII. 
 
 ment of the prophecy of Moses, and a proof that God 
 has rejected them from being the people of His cove- 
 nant, they have been taught to believe that their pre- 
 sent affliction is not because of their own sins, but for 
 the redemption of the world, — it is no humiliation, but 
 an honour, of which they alone are worthy ; for their 
 sorrows are the ransom of mankind : and as soon as the 
 ransom is complete, then will the proud Christians 
 themselves be witnesses of their triumph, as they are 
 " gathered from the north country, and all countries 
 whither God has scattered them, to dwell in their own 
 land ;" and thither " shall the glory of the Gentiles 
 come to them like a flowing river," in countless bands 
 of proselytes; and there, finally, "all flesh shall ap- 
 pear," at the recurrence of their great festivals, " to 
 worship before their Jehovah." 
 
 But these views have in the present day an even 
 greater importance in the use which has been made of 
 them by Christian commentators. For it was impossi- 
 ble but that the renown gained by the critical exami- 
 nation of the annals of ancient Kome, and the recon- 
 struction of its history from the disjointed materials, 
 must lead to the same attempt being made upon Jew- 
 ish history. Nor ought we either to wonder or grieve 
 at this. It may bo an evil to those minds which en- 
 gage in the task, because with these Jewish records 
 faith is also mixed up, which had no place in those 
 old Eoman histories; and possibly, in scrutinizing 
 closely the object-matter of faith, the result may be 
 a want of veneration in treating of those things which 
 angels, we are told, desire to look into. But the hu- 
 man mind is so strangely constituted, that such a re- 
 
CONTROVERSY NOT NECESSARILY AN EVIL. 1 99 
 
 suit need not necessarily be the case. Faith is so much 
 an act of the will, and not of the understanding, that 
 the errors of the latter do not necessarily very strongly 
 affect the former; and orthodoxy of belief is quite 
 separable from fervency of devotion. Certainly the 
 writer whom I have referred to as the resuscitator of 
 the idea that the Servant of Jehovah was the Prophet 
 Jeremiah was a man of deep piety and earnest faith, 
 however deficient we may consider him in soundness 
 and calmness of judgment. But however this may 
 be, certainly the mind of man will never be content 
 to build its hopes upon a foundation which it has not 
 and may not examine ; and though the individual may 
 suffer, the community must be benefited by the en- 
 quiry. For if our views — the current views — be true, 
 they will finally be only the more firmly established 
 by a close and searching examination into their merits, 
 even if it be made by ud friendly hands, and with the 
 hope of proving them to be untenable. But if our 
 views be in part untrue, — if, as is possibly the case, 
 there be in every age a certain amount of falseness 
 mingled with the truth in the theories then current, 
 as falseness is contrary to God's nature, and injurious 
 to man's, — we have no reason to grieve, but rather 
 the contrary, whenever we see men patiently, even if 
 as we think over-boldly, examining into the grounds 
 and reasons of what we hold. 
 
 The arguments, therefore, invented by the Jews for 
 the purpose of protecting themselves against Chris- 
 tian controversialists, have in the last few years been 
 closely examined by Christian writers ; but no longer 
 
2,00 SERMON VII. 
 
 for the purpose of refuting them, but in the hope of 
 finding some scheme which may explain away the 
 difficulties consequent upon the denial of the pro- 
 phets being in an especial sense God's messengers, 
 commissioned to reveal things future. They have 
 been stated, therefore, with fresh circumstances, have 
 been put into a new light, and strengthened with 
 every argument which the most painstaking research, 
 the minutest philological criticism, and the most exact 
 examination into style, and manner, and matter could 
 discover : but the result has not been satisfactory to 
 the searchers; for no view has attained to the dig- 
 nity of a current interpretation. Each enquirer has 
 had his own theory, but has found few followers ; 
 more successful in shewing the difficulties which beset 
 his rival's scheme, than in building up his own, he 
 has left behind no enduring monument of much pa- 
 tient industry, perhaps, and learning ; and if the peru- 
 sal of one German commentary may shake the reader's 
 faith in the genuineness, for instance, of Isaiah's pro- 
 phecies, and the truth of their inspiration, on finding 
 so much ingenuity and learning arrayed against them, 
 the perusal of a fifth and sixth only fills the mind 
 with weariness at finding in them assertions con- 
 flicting at every possible point, and the ceaseless 
 striving after a barren novelty. 
 
 We may leave, therefore, the exact consideration 
 of the minutise of these theories for those whose busi- 
 ness it is to make themselves acquainted with what- 
 ever commentators are doing or have done to elucidate 
 or obscure the meaning of the divine records : our 
 
PROOF FROM INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 201 
 
 time to-day will probably be more usefully spent in 
 considering the reasons which justify us in still re- 
 taining the Messianic interpretation. 
 
 It is not my intention, however, to shew how con- 
 stantly both our Lord and His Apostles refer to this 
 prophecy, and generally to the last twenty-seven 
 chapters of Isaiah, in proof that the " Christ was to 
 suffer and so to enter into His glory." Nor shall I 
 appeal to the confessedly unanimous consent of the 
 Fathers, both of the ancient Jewish and Christian 
 Church, in identifying the Messiah with the Servant 
 of Jehovah. Both these arguments have great weight, 
 but it is the weight of authority; and though pro- 
 bably there are few scholars in this country who 
 would doubt that the authority of the divine teachers 
 of the New Testament in interpreting and explaining 
 the Jewish Scriptures is superior in nature and degree 
 to every other whatsoever, still it is not to authority 
 that I at present appeal. My object rather is to shew 
 from internal evidence that the terms of the prophecy 
 are exactly fulfilled in our blessed Lord. In the case 
 of all the other interpretations which have been 
 brought forward, I have already stated what seem to 
 me unanswerable objections and difficulties in the way 
 of making the facts and doctrines of the prophecy 
 agree with the explanation offered : in referring it to 
 our Lord there are no such difficulties, but the most 
 complete and entire agreement between the prophecy 
 and the fulfilment adduced. 
 
 I. For first, as to the facts of the prophecy. The 
 Servant of Jehovah is described as being sprung from 
 
202 SERMON VII. 
 
 a family which had fallen from a position of grandeur 
 into humble circumstances. " He shall grow up before 
 Jehovah as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry 
 ground." Similarly in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah 
 we were told that " He should come forth as a rod, 
 or shoot, from the cut-down trunk of Jesse, and as 
 a sucker from among his roots." Now nothing is 
 more certain than that the Jews expected that the 
 Messiah would not only be born of David's kingly 
 line, but that His entrance into the world would be 
 attended with great pomp and splendour. But plainly 
 the Prophet's words describe a state of the lowest 
 humiliation : for what stronger picture of languor and 
 weakness could be given than that of a sucker sprung 
 from the roots of a fallen tree, and this sucker itself 
 under an Eastern sun scarcely finding in the parched 
 and dried-up soil the means of nourishment? In 
 which, then, of the many opposing explanations shall 
 we find this first note fulfilled, that the Servant of 
 Jehovah is to be by birth and education one unfitted 
 for his high office ? It cannot be said of Israel col- 
 lectively, the seed of Abraham, Jehovah's friend : nor 
 of any of their kings; nor of Isaiah, from his early 
 youth a king's counsellor ; nor of Jeremiah, a priest's 
 son, — as some say, son of that high-priest, Hilkiah, 
 who was Josiah's most active coadjutor in his reforms. 
 But in our Lord it was fulfilled. Of the race of kings 
 who had ruled in splendour at Jerusalem a root still 
 lingered in poverty and obscurity among the moun- 
 tains of Galilee, earning the means of subsistence by 
 manual labour. Born in so remote a village, a car- 
 
LITERAL MEANING OF 'TENDER PLANT.' 203 
 
 penter's reputed son, how could He acquire the rudi- 
 ments of education ? " How knoweth this man letters, 
 having never learned ?"• It was to His contemporaries 
 the very difficulty which made them close their eyes 
 to the evidence even of miracles, that our Lord came 
 so humbly: their Messiah, the desire of all nations, 
 could not be a mean carpenter's son, brought up in 
 an obscure village, without rank, or wealth, or educa- 
 tion, the brother of such ordinary people as James and 
 Joses : — " and they were offended because of Him." 
 
 Yet this was the very fact foretold, that He should 
 be a root growing out of a dry ground, — growing, that 
 is, where naturally it was not possible for it to grow. 
 He was to be absolutely destitute of all adventitious 
 aids to success ; nature and the world were to con- 
 tribute nothing to His mission; but, in the Prophet's 
 words elsewhere, He was to be a marvel, "a wonder V 
 And perhaps the literal meaning of the present pas- 
 sage is even more striking than the translation would 
 lead us to expect; for though most commentators 
 agree with our version in taking the word which it 
 renders " tender plant" in a metaphorical sense, as 
 a shoot or sucker, both on account of the parallelism, 
 as it answers to "root" in the second clause, and also 
 on account of the verb "he shall grow up;" yet else- 
 where it is invariably used in its literal sense as "an 
 unweaned child," and is so rendered in the eleventh 
 chapter of Isaiah, — "The sucking child shall play 
 upon the hole of the asp." Accordingly, the Septua- 
 gint renders it here also by 7rai8lov, and the Syriac 
 
 h Isa. ix. 6. 
 
204 SERMON VII. 
 
 by "He hath come up as a young child before Him." 
 The Messiah is to submit, therefore, to the infirmities 
 of human nature; though elsewhere He be "the 
 mighty God, the everlasting Father," yet is He also 
 to be a child, weak, frail, helpless, dependent upon 
 others for His support. "We can divine no reason 
 why the Prophet should tell us that Hezekiah, or 
 Josiah, or himself, or Jeremiah, were once unweaned 
 children: it was the greatest mystery ever enacted 
 upon the earth when an Immanuel, an incarnate 
 God, was born of the virgin. 
 
 In a tropical country the Prophet's metaphor would 
 be far more suggestive of weakness than among our- 
 selves. Yegetation there seems entirely to depend 
 upon water ; the driest stock " at the mere scent of 
 water will bud, and bring forth boughs." Oriental 
 imagery is therefore constantly drawn from the luxu- 
 riance of vegetation in a moist soil. By such an image 
 the Psalmist depicts the greatness to which bad men 
 sometimes attain : "I have seen the wicked in great 
 power, spreading himself abroad like a tree growing 
 in its own soil, and green from the abundance of its 
 sap c ." It is a metaphor the exact reverse of the 
 Prophet's. The one sets before us the idea of a 
 mighty tree, which has never been weakened by 
 transplantation, but grows in its native soil with that 
 marvellous rankness which makes vegetation in the 
 East a wonder, wherever water is plentiful. And so 
 do the sons of kings grow up, surrounded by splen- 
 dour and magnificence, undwarfed by poverty and 
 c Ps. xxxvii. 35. 
 
CHILDHOOD OF THE MESSIAH. 205 
 
 neglect, like stately cedars, born to rule over the 
 meaner trees. But not so "the unweanecl child" 
 whom Isaiah describes : He is as a root in a dry 
 ground, pinched by poverty, uncared for, living in 
 neglect and obscurity; He is "like the heath in the 
 desert, which seeth not the time when good cometh, 
 but inhabiteth the parched places of the wilderness, 
 in a salt land, and not inhabited 11 ." Such actually 
 was our Lord, dwelling in a Galila3an village, the off- 
 spring of an uprooted stock, destitute of all the ad- 
 vantages of birth, and rank, and wealth ; the advan- 
 tages which from their childhood those enjoy who 
 dwell in the homes of their ancestors, as " trees in 
 their own soil." 
 
 And His bringing up is like His birth. " He has 
 no form, nor comeliness : and when men see Him, 
 there is no beauty that they should desire Him." 
 There was nothing in Him as He grew up to attract 
 the world's admiration : no marvellous beauty of per- 
 son ; no striking sprightliness of manner ; nothing of 
 that show and glitter which the multitude think so 
 highly of. His thoughtful mother pondered indeed 
 over His sayings, for He let fall from time to time 
 words significative of His future calling; but they 
 were not such words as catch the attention of the idle. 
 Even she, when He entered upon His ministry, was 
 so little prepared for it, that she would have dis- 
 suaded Him from it. The doctors in the temple were 
 astonished at His understanding and answers, His 
 meditative mind impressed them, but not so the people 
 d Jer. xvii. 6. 
 
206 SERMON VII. 
 
 among whom He lived. By them He was regarded 
 with kindness ; for " He grew in favour with men as 
 well as with God ;" but they did not look upon Him 
 as having anything extraordinary in His character. 
 When, therefore, He preached in their synagogue, 
 they had no patience with Him — were ready even to 
 ill-treat Him; for they could see no difference be- 
 tween Him and Joses, and James and Simon, and 
 Jude, His brethren. 
 
 But the Prophet does not describe Him merely as 
 an object of neglect, the world is not merely careless 
 about Him, and willing to leave Him in obscurity, — 
 it despises and rejects Him. " He is despised and 
 rejected of men," — or rather, He submitted to be the 
 most abject of mankind, " the despised among men ;" — ■ 
 i\axL(TTG? avdpcov, as Symmachus translates it; "the 
 most humble of mankind," as the Syriac ; "novissi- 
 mus hominum," as Jerome. The lot which He chose 
 was the very lowliest, — to go about without a place 
 where to lay His head, supported by the alms of the 
 people. In the Psalms He says of Himself, " I am 
 a worm, and no man:" a thing that is below man's 
 estate; "a reproach of men, and despised of the 
 people." He was, moreover, to be "a man of sor- 
 rows, and acquainted with grief;" one who bore in 
 more than common measure the pains and griefs of 
 human life, and that without meeting with ordinary 
 sympathy; for "we hid as it were our faces from 
 Him : He was despised, and we esteemed Ilim not." 
 What metaphor could more strongly picture the 
 world's aversion to Him? Men seem to turn from 
 
METAPHORS NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY. 207 
 
 Ilim with involuntary abhorrence, and to hide their 
 faces with their hands that they may spare themselves 
 the pain of seeing Him. For literally the words sig- 
 nify, "As one from whom men hide their faces, so 
 was He despised, and we esteemed Him not ;" and as 
 the word translated "grief," "acquainted with grief," 
 primarily signifies " disease," the whole passage calls 
 up before us the idea of one of those painful objects, 
 afflicted with an incurable malady, who are to be met 
 with at the gates of most Oriental towns, and from 
 whom the traveller turns away his eyes with invo- 
 luntary aversion and disgust. 
 
 "We are not, indeed, to take these words literally; 
 from too literal an interpretation the Jews drew that 
 picture of the Messiah which I have referred to before, 
 sitting amidst a crowd of lepers at the gates of Eome. 
 Really, the Prophet is using metaphors, as above, where 
 he described the Messiah as being a root. It is not 
 even a necessary inference that our Lord was remark- 
 able for personal uncomeliness : rather the Prophet 
 intended, by the use of these forcible images, to stamp 
 the idea of a lowly, meek, and patient sufferer upon 
 our minds. He describes the Saviour, therefore, as 
 submitting to the extremity of bodily humiliation ; 
 but by this simile he rather intended us to understand 
 those mental agonies which the Messiah bore, as being 
 the appointed sacrifice for sin. It is a picture of the 
 utmost sorrow, of the cup of anguish full to the brim ; 
 and may well, therefore, call up to our minds the re- 
 membrance of that struggle in the garden when He 
 even shrank from the awful conflict before Him. And 
 
208 SERMON VII. 
 
 if the words of the prophecy are too great and forcible 
 for any hnman and earthly trouble, they the more 
 suitably apply to Him, whose humiliation for man's 
 sake is deepened by the contrast with the glory which 
 He had as God from before the world began. 
 
 But the narrative of Messiah's sufferings is not 
 yet complete. He is also the victim of violence and 
 cruelty. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; 
 yet He opened not His mouth : as a lamb He is led 
 to the slaughter, and as a sheep is dumb before her 
 shearers, so He opened not His mouth." It is the 
 account of One whose life of ill-treatment ends in an 
 unresisting death ; and in the words there is suggested 
 to us the idea of sacrifice, — of a lamb led to the altar, 
 — u the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the 
 world," as it is paraphrased by the Baptist. And as 
 it was a good omen that the victim should advance 
 joyous and unresisting to the sacrifice, so did our Lord 
 stand silent in Pilate's judgment-hall: to Herod He 
 answered never a word; He refuted no accusations, 
 explained away no unjust suspicions, did not protest 
 His innocence. Such unusual conduct astonished even 
 the Governor : for " he marvelled greatly." 
 
 But His humiliation draws now to a close; for 
 in the next verse we read that " Ho was taken 
 from prison and from judgment." For this rendering, 
 " prison," there is little or no authority ; but we find, 
 as is so often the case, in the margin, a more faithful 
 translation of the original words, " He was taken away 
 by distress, and judgment." But, as is well known, 
 from the infrcquency of adjectives in the Semitic 
 
the Messiah's condemnation. 209 
 
 dialects, various periphrases have to be used to ex- 
 press their force; and thus "by distress and judg- 
 ment" means, according to our idiom, "by a distress- 
 ing judgment ;" or, as the original might more exactly 
 be translated "by oppression and by judgment," it 
 means an "oppressive, an unjust judgment." The 
 Servant, therefore, of Jehovah, is led unresisting to 
 death, in obedience to an unjust sentence, — a sen- 
 tence such as tyrants and oppressors pass. Of whom 
 speaketh the Prophet this ? Many even of the Jews 
 have felt that the words could apply only to one 
 who had suffered martyrdom, and have thought there- 
 fore that Isaiah meant one Akiba, or Aquila, who 
 perished in the wars against Eome. But this martyr 
 was but a fabulous person ; nor even if he had really 
 existed, would it be true of him that "he prolonged 
 his days," or fulfilled the rest of the prophecy. But 
 no words could more exactly describe our Lord's con- 
 demnation, when the very judge protested his victim's 
 innocence, and publicly washed his hands before the 
 people as a disavowal of the sentence, which neverthe- 
 less he passed, because to his tyrannical nature it was 
 a less evil that one just man should die than that the 
 festival at which he came to preside should be dis- 
 turbed by the violence of the mob. 
 
 The right interpretation of the next sentence, " Who 
 shall declare his generation?" has been much dis- 
 puted; but that which is most generally received 
 makes it an ejaculation of horror on the part of the 
 Prophet at the greatness of the sin committed by 
 Christ's contemporaries : — " Who can describe the men 
 
 p 
 
2IO SEEM0N VII. 
 
 of that generation, or their crime, without a parallel in 
 the world's history ?" " For He was cut off from the 
 land of the living !" It was the slaughter of Jehovah's 
 Servant which made their wickedness so much greater 
 than that of other men, when they said, " This is the 
 heir ; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall 
 he ours." But even of their general wickedness the 
 historian of their wars bears this remarkable testimony, 
 — " I deem it, that if the Romans had delayed to 
 come against these wretches, the city would have been 
 swallowed up by an earthquake, or overwhelmed by 
 a deluge, or experienced the same fate as Sodom: for 
 it bore a more impious generation than those which 
 suffered such things e ." 
 
 The account of the Messiah's death is followed by 
 one of those statements, which were necessarily unin- 
 telligible until they were fulfilled, and which not un- 
 frequently occur in the prophetic records : — "And they 
 appointed His burial to be with the wicked, but He was 
 with the rich after His death." According to the ordi- 
 nary treatment of those condemned to death, His body 
 would have shared the same ignominious fate as those 
 of the malefactors between whom He was crucified; 
 or had it been surrendered to the Jews, their law was 
 that the body of a blasphemer, after being exposed 
 for several days to public disgrace, should finally be 
 buried in secret. The courage of one man prevented 
 our Lord's body from meeting with the slightest con- 
 tumely; on the contrary, from the moment when 
 Joseph of Arimathsea went in boldly and begged it 
 
 e Jos., Bell. Jucl, v. 13. 6. 
 
DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS. 2 1 I 
 
 of the Governor, it was tended with the most reverent 
 love, and was laid in the rich man's grave. I may- 
 add that the word rendered in our version "he made," 
 literally signifies "gave," and is used impersonally, 
 "one gave," that is, "they gave," "they appointed;" 
 the nominative not being expressed, to shew that ac- 
 cording to the ordinary course of events His burial 
 would have been with the wicked, in the common 
 malefactor's grave. But the same Providence which 
 watched over His body upon the cross, and ordained 
 that "no bone of it should be broken," ordained also 
 that every earthly mark of respect should attend it 
 in its burial. 
 
 II. Thus far there is noticeable a close and obvious 
 agreement between the terms of the prophecy and the 
 facts of our Lord's life and death. But there are also 
 doctrinal statements applicable to no one but our Lord ; 
 for the Prophet in the strongest terms declares the 
 general sinfulness of man, the complete innocence of 
 the victim, and that what He bore was the punish- 
 ment of the iniquity of others. Of men he says, " All 
 we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every 
 one to his own way." And if this was true of the 
 Jews, the people of God's covenant, more true was it 
 of the heathen, who were aliens from God. All men, 
 then, had wandered like sheep, — the most roving of 
 all animals, — from God's ways ; not all into the same 
 sins, nor all sinners in the same degree, but all with 
 sins of their own to answer for. Jehovah's Servant 
 alone does not share in this general sinfulness, but, on 
 
 p2 
 
212 SEEMON VII. 
 
 the contrary, makes atonement for others. il Surely 
 He hath borne our diseases, and carried our sorrows : 
 but we did esteem Him leprous, smitten of God, and 
 afflicted." 
 
 St. Matthew quotes this verse in its lower applica- 
 tion, of the healing of the sick by our Lord's miracu- 
 lous powers: — "He healed all that were sick, that it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the 
 prophet, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our 
 sicknesses." But this lower and secondary fulfil- 
 ment does not militate against its higher accom- 
 plishment in the propitiatory sacrifice which Christ 
 offered for man's pardon. Among the Jews the ideas 
 of sickness and sin were inseparably connected; it 
 was the sin of Adam which .had brought death, 
 and with it sickness into the world; and in the 
 prophets, the words expressive of sickness and dis- 
 ease are so constantly used for sin, as almost to cease 
 to be metaphorical. In the New Testament the same 
 thought is present in the words with which our 
 Lord healed the sick of the palsy, — "Thy sins be 
 forgiven thee." 
 
 " To bear our diseases," therefore, is " to bear our 
 sins ;" or, in other words, to be answerable for them. 
 In the Mosaic Law the phrase constantly occurs, of 
 a man bearing his sin in the sense of being liable to the 
 fixed legal punishment for it. But there are two places 
 especially which may serve to explain the Prophet's 
 meaning : for, first, we find Moses saying to Eleazar 
 and Ithamar, the priests, the sons of Aaron, "God 
 hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congrcga- 
 
SINLESSNESS OF JEHOVAH S SERVANT. 1 1 3 
 
 tion, to make atonement for them before the Lord f ;" 
 and, secondly, Aaron is "to lay his hands upon the 
 head of the scapegoat, and confess over him all the 
 sins of the children of Israel, and send him away into 
 the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all 
 their iniquities g ." Now both these types were fulfilled 
 in our Lord. "We see in Him both the victim, who, 
 in His own Person, bears the guilt of His people ; and 
 also the High-Priest, who, by the merits of His own 
 blood, makes atonement for them. 
 
 But though thus it was the sins of others which 
 He bore, yet " We," says the Prophet, " esteemed 
 Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." The 
 words all imply some such punishment as comes 
 directly from God; and the first is chiefly used of 
 the leprosy, a disease which the Jews regarded as 
 so entirely of divine infliction, that no attempt was 
 ever made to heal it. The whole passage, moreover, 
 plainly shews that He who was thus stricken could 
 neither be the Jewish nation as a whole, nor the 
 prophetic order, as the more worthy portion of it. For 
 those in whose name Isaiah speaks acknowledge their 
 error: they had imagined that the great sorrows which 
 the Servant of Jehovah bore were the results of His 
 own sin, a punishment sent by God as the merited 
 chastisement of His own ill deserts ; they now in the 
 most unqualified terms protest His innocence, and de- 
 clare that He was bearing the chastisement due to 
 themselves. Who then are they in whose name the 
 Prophet makes this confession ? Or can it be any other 
 than his own nation primarily, and then all mankind, 
 f Lev. x. 17. « Lev. xvi. 21, 22. 
 
214 SERMON VII. 
 
 as they learn to feel their own sinfulness, and find in 
 the Messiah one who bore their chastisement ? On the 
 other hand, the Jewish people could not be the Servant 
 of Jehovah ; for He is acknowledged innocent, but the 
 Prophet constantly accuses them of wickedness : these 
 last twenty-seven chapters are full of indignant de- 
 nunciations of their crimes. Nor, again, could it be 
 the prophetic order ; for though, doubtless, it was free 
 from the worst faults of the nation, still it could nei- 
 ther be pronounced absolutely innocent, like Jehovah's 
 Servant, nor equal to the task of bearing the sins of 
 others. The sole explanation, therefore, which remains 
 is, that the confession belongs to those primarily who, 
 at the preaching of the Apostles, learnt to regard as 
 their Saviour Him whom they had pierced : and sub- 
 sequently, to all in every place and age who are 
 brought to acknowledge their sinfulness, and find in 
 Christ one by whose sufferings they may procure 
 peace. 
 
 For so the Prophet proceeds. " He was pierced 
 through for our sins, and bruised for our iniquities: 
 the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and by 
 His stripes we have been healed." There is probably 
 in these words a reference to the crucifixion, when 
 our Lord's side was pierced by the spear ; and as the 
 word has an intensive meaning, "pierced through 
 and through," it is even in some versions, as in the 
 Syriac, rendered " slain." But the main object of the 
 Prophet rather was to express the intensity of the 
 sufferings which the Messiah bore in obtaining pardon 
 for His people's sins. He says, therefore, that He 
 was pierced through and through for our transgres- 
 
Messiah's exaltation. 215 
 
 sions ; and bruised, or rather crushed, ground down, 
 for our iniquities. In other words, the sufferings of 
 Christ were not imaginary, or slight, hut real and 
 intense, and such as while procuring for us reconcilia- 
 tion with God, might also serve to convince us of the 
 hatefulness of sin in God's sight, when its pardon 
 could be obtained only by so terrible a penalty. But 
 Christ having paid this penalty, has procured for us 
 peace with God ; we have been healed by His stripes, 
 and restored in things spiritual to a state of health 
 and soundness. 
 
 But having thus borne the punishment of sins, of 
 which He was not guilty, the Servant of Jehovah 
 is finally to obtain a commensurate reward. And 
 this reward is doubly described, — first in the words of 
 God Himself, at the end of the fifty-second chapter, 
 and more fully again in the fifty-third. In the first 
 place we read, "My servant shall deal prudently;" 
 or as it may possibly mean, " shall prosper : He shall 
 be exalted and extolled, and be very high. In pro- 
 portion as many have been astonished because of 
 Thee, — so marred was His aspect that it was scarcely 
 human, and His form so abject that it was scarcely 
 that of a man, — so shall they be astonished at His 
 exaltation, when He shall sanctify many nations, and 
 kings shall close their mouths in awe at His presence. 
 For (though they are Gentiles, yet) they shall see 
 things such as neither tradition of old nor their wise 
 men had told them, and shall understand truths such 
 as they had never before heard." Surely when in 
 these words the Prophet describes the joy with which 
 
2l6 SERMON VII. 
 
 the Gentiles, as represented by their kings, shall 
 receive the tidings of Jehovah's Servant, he gives 
 himself the key to the meaning of that triumphant 
 march of the exiles from Babylon, and return to the 
 holy city, which immediately precedes this prophecy ; 
 and explains to us what are the news brought by that 
 herald, who from Judcea's mountain-tops publishes 
 peace. It was no messenger sent forward by Ezra, 
 but the apostles and preachers of Christianity, whom 
 the Prophet describes in these words, — " How beautiful 
 upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
 a gospel, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth a gos- 
 pel of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto 
 Zion, Thy God reigneth !" 
 
 "We have no less an authority than St. Paul for 
 applying to the calling of the Gentiles the last words 
 of the fifty -second chapter, — " Kings shall shut their 
 mouths at Him : for that which had not been told 
 them, they shall see." For in Eom. xv. 21, in speak- 
 ing of their admission into the Church, he quotes 
 these very words, — " To whom He was not spoken of 
 they shall see, and they that have not heard shall un- 
 derstand." And that by sprinkling the nations the 
 Prophet means that Messiah shall consecrate, and 
 sanctify, and devote them to God, we conclude from 
 the fact that sprinkling was the form by which the 
 priests were hallowed and consecrated to their office. 
 For so we read, — " Thou shalt take of the blood that 
 is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle 
 it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his 
 sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him : 
 
god's purpose in Messiah's sufferings. 217 
 
 and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his 
 sons, and his son's garments with him 11 ." So, also, of 
 the goat of the sin-offering we read, — "The priest 
 shall sprinkle of the blood upon the altar with his 
 finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from 
 the uncleanness of the children of Israel V But thus 
 "to sprinkle many nations" with blood, and make 
 them the willing servants of Jehovah, consecrated to 
 His service, is no light office ; not one that we may, 
 as a trifling matter, apply to some Jewish king, or 
 prophet, or the Jewish people generally : rather it is 
 the office of one who is especially God's High-Priest, 
 and whom the high-priests of old did but typify ; who 
 by the merits of His one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, 
 oblation and satisfaction, made an atonement for the 
 sins of all mankind. 
 
 In the tenth verse of the fifty-third chapter the 
 Prophet in his own person, or rather in the name of 
 the people, reverts to the subject of Messiah's exalta- 
 tion. "But it was Jehovah's will to bruise Him: 
 He smote Him unto death. If He make Himself an 
 offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall pro- 
 long His days, and Jehovah's pleasure shall prosper 
 in His hand." It follows, therefore, that the humilia- 
 tion of Jehovah's Servant was part of the divine plan, 
 and was necessary for the accomplishment of God's 
 counsel; it does not mean that Jehovah had any 
 pleasure in His Servant's sufferings as such, — that 
 what He endured was in itself a satisfaction to Him ; 
 what it shews us is, that there was a divine purpose 
 h Exod. xxix. 21. ; Lev. xvi. 19. 
 
2 1 8 SERMON VII. 
 
 to be accomplished in Messiah thus becoming a "man 
 of sorrows." And the next clause explains the na- 
 ture of this purpose, — "If He make Himself an offer- 
 ing for sin." In the Authorized Version the verb is 
 taken in the second person singular, — " When Thou 
 shalt make His soul an offering for sin ;" but in the 
 margin we find the construction now more commonly 
 received, " When His soul shall make an offering." 
 As the word rendered " soul" means, however, simply 
 " self," the sense is, " If He shall Himself make an 
 offering for sin :" but most modern commentators con- 
 sider that the word " Himself" is again to be supplied, 
 and that the right rendering finally is, " If He shall 
 Himself make Himself an offering for sin." And this 
 interpretation, which is most in accordance with the 
 principles of Hebrew grammar, is exactly what St. 
 Paul says of our Lord in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 — " Christ gave Himself for us an offering and a sa- 
 crifice to God." 
 
 Upon this immediately follows — as the same Apostle 
 declares to the Philippians — Messiah's exaltation, which 
 the Prophet describes in three particulars. For, first, 
 His sorrows shall not be in vain, for "He shall see 
 His seed." Not as the Jews supposed, in a line of 
 natural descendants, succeeding Him in an earthly 
 crown, the prize of war and battle ; but in a Church, 
 the members of which are adopted into God's family, 
 and being "led by the Spirit of God, are made there- 
 by His sons." And next, "He shall prolong His 
 days." In these words we have, again, one of the 
 contradictions of prophecy : for how could one prolong 
 
HUMAN FACULTIES LIMITED. 219 
 
 his days who was "pierced through and through," 
 was -cut off from the land of the living;" " whose 
 burial was appointed to be with the wicked, but who 
 was with the rich after His death ?" How in the same 
 one verse could the Prophet declare that " it was Je- 
 hovah's will to smite His Servant unto death," and 
 that nevertheless " He should prolong His days ?" 
 But in our Lord these words, so apparently impossible, 
 proved doubly true. They proved true in fact; for 
 He arose from the grave, and after a short sojourn on 
 earth ascended into heaven, in that same human body 
 in which He had suffered, and which, human still 
 though transfigured and glorified, is even now united 
 with Him at God's right hand : and they proved true 
 in spirit ; for, " lo ! I am with you always," He says, 
 " even unto the end of the world." And lastly, the 
 counsel of God in man's restoration shall "prosper in 
 His hands :" prosper, perhaps, not exactly in the way 
 that we should wish, or that human counsels would 
 propose ; but in the way which really is in accordance 
 with God's final purpose when He created the world, 
 and peopled it with a race of beings endowed with 
 free-will, and subject to a real probation, for which 
 the presence of evil is a necessary condition. But of 
 this purpose we are not judges : we do not possess 
 sufficient knowledge, either of the end or of the means, 
 to be able to form any probable opinion. " God has 
 shewn thee, O man, what to do," but He has not 
 made thee His counsellor, nor acquainted thee with 
 His purposes. There is everything revealed in Holy 
 Scripture necessary for a life here of holiness, to God's 
 
220 SERMON VII. 
 
 glory, and our own salvation ; but of the many cur- 
 rent opinions respecting the mysteries of our nature 
 and the unseen world, which we hold besides, some 
 are probable, some barely possible, but few have any 
 certain warrant in Holy Writ. We can feel that 
 a probation is going on : why we should be subject to 
 it, or why it should be so difficult, we cannot tell. 
 But we may firmly believe that it is for our real 
 good, and that the counsel of the Almighty in the 
 incarnation of the Son does " prosper in His hands." 
 
 In the two remaining verses, God in person con- 
 firms the assertion of the Prophet that the Messiah's 
 sufferings shall not be in vain. " Because of His own 
 labours shall He see the reward : by His knowledge 
 shall My Servant, as being the Eighteous One, justify 
 many: for He shall bear their iniquities." In this 
 passage many consider that the expression "by His 
 knowledge" means that Christ will justify many by 
 their being taught the truth as it is in Him, and so 
 attaining to the knowledge of Him in His various 
 offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; but the con- 
 nection of ideas rather seems to require the more ob- 
 vious meaning, that Christ's work of justification is 
 rendered possible by His having wisely executed the 
 Father's counsels. It carries back the mind to the 
 opening words, "Behold, My Servant shall deal pru- 
 dently," — well, that is, and wisely; and with it sug- 
 gests the mystery, that our Lord, though free from 
 all taint and possibility of sin, yet in His human 
 nature underwent some probation: "was tempted in 
 all points like as we are;" could be encouraged by 
 
CHRIST S UNIVERSAL EMPIRE. 221 
 
 hope, in that "for the joy set before Him, He en- 
 dured the cross, despising the shame ;" and was capa- 
 ble of reward, " for God, we read, hath highly exalted 
 Him, and given Him a name which is above every 
 name." It is also to be noticed, that the word 
 "righteous" holds a position contrary to the usual 
 rules of Hebrew syntax, but which serves very plainly 
 to mark the especial purity and sinlessness of Jeho- 
 vah's Servant. For the words are not "My righteous 
 Servant," but " the Eighteous One, My Servant," as if 
 to signify that Messiah's bearing the iniquities of 
 mankind was only possible by reason of His being 
 "the Eighteous One," one possessed of perfect and 
 spotless innocency. 
 
 In the concluding verse, the rewards which Jehovah 
 bestows upon His Servant are described under meta- 
 phors taken from war and conquest : — " Therefore will 
 I give Him many for His portion : and He shall divide 
 the mighty as a prey." In these words we have the 
 promise repeated that the Messiah is Jehovah's Servant 
 not for the Jew only, but for all mankind, "to be 
 God's salvation unto the ends of the earth." It is no 
 local Church which He comes to found, but one which 
 in due time shall, embrace all nations within its fold : 
 for in the Psalmist's words, " God will give unto His 
 Christ the heathen for His inheritance, and the ut- 
 most parts of the earth for His possession." And the 
 reason of this universal empire follows, — the same 
 reason which St. Paul gave the Philippians in the cor- 
 responding passage, in which he explained to them 
 Christ's exaltation : that " Every tongue shall confess 
 
222 SEEMON VII. 
 
 that Jesus Christ is Lord," " because He laid Himself 
 bare unto death, and was numbered with the transgres- 
 sors, and He bare the sin of many, and made interces- 
 
 3g] 
 
 sion for the transgressors." 
 
 In examining this portion of Holy Writ thus, verse 
 by verse, it is impossible not to feel that the doctrines 
 which it contains agree even more exactly than the 
 facts themselves, were that possible, with the truths 
 of Christianity. We may, in fact, even say that 
 Isaiah's words have, in all ages, been accepted by the 
 Church as the authoritative explanation of the nature 
 of our Lord's sacrifice upon the Cross ; and the Apo- 
 stles themselves, when treating of its efficacy, ever 
 refer more or less directly to them. The prophecy is 
 the foundation therefore upon which the doctrine of the 
 Atonement is built : and as it thus becomes the chief 
 and most important of all the prophetic writings, we 
 may well rejoice that it is also the most plain, and 
 that it commends itself to the understanding by the 
 clearness of its predictions, by the impossibility of 
 referring them to any king or prophet, or the Jewish 
 nation, and by their exact fulfilment in Christ only, 
 quite as much as it does to the conscience by reveal- 
 ing to it a Saviour who has made atonement for sins, 
 and by the merit of whose sacrifice the guilty may 
 obtain pardon and peace. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 Isaiah lxv. 17. 
 
 " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the 
 former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." 
 
 rpiIE main topic of which Isaiah treats in the third 
 aad concluding portion of his last great prophecy 
 is the substitution of the Christian in the place of the 
 Jewish Church. In the two previous sections this 
 truth had been alluded to, and the principles stated 
 upon which it rests ; but in them it held a subordi- 
 nate place, while now it is foremost in the Prophet's 
 mind. As I have observed before, the last twenty- 
 seven chapters of Isaiah do not follow any strictly 
 regular plan, and though there is a progress in them, 
 and in each section one subject holds a more promi- 
 nent place than the rest, yet there is no regular de- 
 velopment of ideas, but the same thoughts continually 
 recur. They grow indeed more clear and definite as 
 we proceed, but they are not treated by the Prophet 
 in the way of premisses and their consequences, of 
 causes and their effects, but as great and leading 
 truths, which he illustrates and enforces in a variety 
 of manners. 
 
 Eeally we may say that the Prophet throughout is 
 occupied with but one great theme; for in this his 
 final prophecy his mission was to prepare the minds 
 
224 BBBMOM Till. 
 
 of his countrymen for the abolition of their national 
 existence, and the development of their local Church 
 into a Church universal. But for this enlargement of 
 their covenant, a necessary condition was the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise made to them of a Messiah. 
 Their office had been to prepare for His coming : He 
 was to be sprung from their kings, bom in their 
 country, brought up in their company, and was to 
 found His dispensation upon a broad and spiritual 
 interpretation of their law. Judaism was not to be 
 destroyed by Him ; no tittle of the law was to fail ; 
 on the contrary, it was to be fulfilled and perfected. 
 But upon His appearing, all that was merely prepara- 
 tory would become obsolete, and pass away ; every- 
 thing local and temporary, and symbolical, would 
 cease to have a place in the divine institutions, because 
 its purpose had been accomplished. The existence, 
 therefore, of their national polity, their possession of 
 their country, the maintenance of their religious ser- 
 vices, their temple and city, and the like, would no 
 longer have a use or meaning. They had been types 
 and outlines of the complete and final revelation of 
 God's will to mankind, and when the Messiah came, 
 and declared the way of salvation, it was impossible 
 for them to maintain a separate and distinct existence 
 from that which was really their own full growth and 
 perfection. 
 
 The merging therefore of the Jewish into the Chris- 
 tian Church is Isaiah's real subject throughout ; but 
 in the several sections it naturally divides itself into 
 three main arguments. Thus, in the first nine chap- 
 
UNITY OF THE GODHEAD. 225 
 
 ters the Prophet largely insists upon Israel's duty, as 
 being for the time God's Church, to bear witness to 
 the unity of the divine nature. Its great office in 
 preparing for Christianity was to testify to there being 
 but one God, in opposition to the motley deities of the 
 heathen. The Apostles of Christ would reveal still 
 deeper mysteries of the divine nature, as it is mani- 
 fested in a Trinity of Persons ; but the absolute unity 
 of the Godhead is the central truth of all spiritual 
 religion, and Israel was required to proclaim this 
 truth. It was, indeed, a truth in abeyance, so to 
 speak, till Christ came : the Jews gave but an un- 
 willing assent to it; the aesthetic and sensuous rites 
 of polytheism had too great a charm for the imagina- 
 tions of men, over whom nature still exerted a power 
 superior to reason, for them heartily to embrace a doc- 
 trine which seemed to put God so far from them. It 
 is only as He is brought near to man in Jesus Christ 
 by the Spirit that they can willingly endure so spiri- 
 tual a truth; but it is the basis of all reasonable 
 religion, and therefore the earnestness with which 
 Isaiah pressed it upon the Church in his day : hence 
 also the justification of the special providence which 
 watched over the Jews as the depositaries of this truth, 
 and of which one of the most remarkable exemplifica- 
 tions was to be the coming deliverance of the exiles 
 from Babylon by the intervention of Cyrus. 
 
 But this deliverance of the Jewish nation from cap- 
 tivity, for the sake of the Jewish Church, of whose 
 existence it was for the time a necessary condition, 
 was but an illustration of the manner in which God 
 
 Q 
 
226 SERMON VIII. 
 
 rules the world for higher and moral purposes ; and 
 the Prophet returns to his main purpose in describing 
 the character and office of that Servant of Jehovah, 
 by whom God's counsels in the redemption of man- 
 kind were to be accomplished. And in Him we have 
 the point of junction between the Jewish and the Chris- 
 tian Church. Whatever the former possessed in type 
 and shadow, it possessed simply as preparing the way 
 for the Messiah's coming; at His advent it entered 
 into a new stage, for all the promises made to it were 
 fulfilled, and it abandoned its former symbolical, wait- 
 ing, imperfect state for ever. In the first section 
 Isaiah had repeatedly described Jehovah's Servant, 
 but not with that unity of idea which marks this 
 second portion of the prophecy. For sometimes he 
 had so spoken of Him that the words best harmonize 
 with Israel, the Church before the nativity; at an- 
 other, they belong to the office of the Church now ; 
 while at another, they suit Him only who is the 
 Church's Head. But in the second part the Servant 
 of Jehovah appears strictly in His personal character, 
 with not a word which suits either the Jewish or 
 the Christian Church. He grows up as a tender 
 plant, as a root out of a dry ground, is born in 
 a mean place, and brought up in obscurity ; in His 
 life He is the man of sorrows, and in His death He 
 bears our sins and carries our griefs. In the third 
 section the Servant of Jehovah is never again ex- 
 pressly mentioned: there are, indeed, allusions to 
 Him, as in the passage read by our Lord in the syna- 
 gogue at Nazareth ; but the Prophet is now occupied 
 
CHURCH LIABLE TO NO FURTHER CHANGE. 227 
 
 with the results of Messiah's sacrifice in the founding 
 of a universal Church, in which the blessings bestowed 
 upon the Jew in promise only, and type and symbol, 
 are granted in full measure ; and which therefore, as 
 not being a mere preparatory Church, nor serving for 
 a mere temporary purpose, but as the depositary of 
 God's final revelation to man, will be eternal. And 
 to this Church of Christ belong the metaphors con- 
 tained in the text, "Behold, I create new heavens 
 and a new earth : and the former," the Jewish Church, 
 " shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." 
 
 As the Jewish and Christian Churches represent 
 the same one divine institution in different stages of 
 its development, they naturally are closely interwoven 
 in the Prophet's mind, and thus many of the argu- 
 ments used in this portion of his discourse are found 
 also in the first nine chapters. The circumstances 
 under which the two dispensations existed were dif- 
 ferent, but their essence was the same. As revelation 
 was incomplete in the Jewish Church, her institutions, 
 as embodying only partial truth, were necessarily im- 
 perfect, and of temporary duration. But as the full 
 measure of divine truth required by man has now 
 been vouchsafed, the Church henceforward assumes, 
 as the Prophet tells us, a permanent character, and 
 its institutions are not liable to further change. Of 
 course, knowledge is now but in part ; but that is so 
 because of the infirmity of our nature. Necessarily 
 it is limited by our powers ; but we have all truth 
 requisite for our probation, and, however weak and 
 childish our ideas may really be of spiritual things, 
 
 q2 
 
228 SERMON VIII. 
 
 they are all that is possible for us in our present state ; 
 and we have no warrant for expecting that God will 
 ever in this world bestow upon us any further reve- 
 lation, or that we can attain to any higher truth, ex- 
 cept so far as we can gain it practically by acting upon 
 what we already possess. 
 
 As thus, then, there is a real identity of subject in 
 the three sections of the prophecy, we may not un- 
 reasonably expect to find the same great truths in- 
 sisted upon in the earlier portions as are more fully 
 declared in the last. Accordingly, in the forty-third 
 chapter, we read the promise of God's constant love 
 and kindness to His Church, — " When thou passost 
 through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through 
 the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou 
 walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, 
 neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. . . Since thou 
 wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, 
 and I have loved thee." But the Jewish Church was 
 not thus honourable for her intrinsic merits, she had 
 been chosen for a definite purpose ; " God," we read, 
 "had created her for His glory, and formed her;" 
 and just as the workman shapes his instruments, not 
 for their own sakes, but for some further use, so God 
 had fashioned the Jewish Church to execute a certain 
 special work in the fulfilment of the divine counsels. 
 "This people," He says, " I have formed for Myself; 
 they shall shew forth My praise." Nor does the Pro- 
 phet leave us in doubt of one great purpose of Israel's 
 calling : — " Ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, that 
 I am God." 
 
A PURPOSE IN ALL GOD S WOEKS. 229 
 
 In the earlier portion of the prophecy Isaiah de- 
 duces from his premisses a lesson of consolation. 
 Formed for a special purpose, Israel's national ex- 
 istence stood upon a different basis from that of other 
 kingdoms. We may indeed feel sure of all God's 
 works that they have a purpose, and that every na- 
 tion and people serves some allotted use ; but often we 
 cannot tell what that purpose is. Even when a nation 
 has completed its term of existence, and we can view 
 its history as a whole, it is more frequently from the 
 imagination than the reason that men conclude what 
 was the exact place it held in the divine economy. 
 There have been nations which have exerted a domi- 
 nant influence for good or evil upon the course of 
 human thought, and have affected the destinies of 
 the world : there may be nations which hold a similar 
 place now. But most nations, like most individuals, 
 play so inferior a part upon the world's stage, that 
 they seem to have no higher destiny than to work 
 out in obscurity their own probation. And even in 
 the greatest nations, while they are still darkly exe- 
 cuting their mission, their purpose and calling is ge- 
 nerally so indefinite, that their duration and future 
 history is a matter of the utmost uncertainty. The 
 rapidity of their upgrowth, the exact time of their 
 culmination, the period of their decay and fall, — all 
 alike are beyond the reach of human calculation. 
 "Who would have imagined that Grecian history would 
 have ceased with Alexander's conquests, and that from 
 this period of her greatest extension her fortunes 
 would no longer have any interest for the world ! 
 
230 SERMON VIII. 
 
 Far different was the case with the Jews. Not 
 only had they a purpose, but that purpose had been 
 authoritatively declared by revelation, and, as such, 
 was the guarantee of their national existence. Given 
 to them first in the promise that in Abraham's seed 
 all the nations of the earth should be blessed, it had 
 subsequently been embodied in the institutions both 
 of their civil and religious law; and consequently 
 the Aaronic priesthood and temple service, and with 
 them their nation and polity, had become matters of 
 necessity until the promised Seed came. The pro- 
 phecy, therefore, of Jacob, that " the sceptre should 
 not depart from Judah until Shiloh came," contained 
 a truth which necessarily followed from the relation 
 in which Israel stood to God. For Shiloh's sake it 
 had been set apart from all nations ; till His coming 
 its office would last ; but when He came, its mission 
 would be over. And to this certainty, that Judaea 
 must remain an independent nation "until Messiah 
 came, Isaiah constantly appeals, as affording the 
 surest ground for comfort during the many troubles 
 which befel the people in his days. 
 
 By separating themselves from the house of David, 
 to which the promise had subsequently been limited 
 by prophecy, the ten tribes cut themselves off from 
 sharing in this guarantee. Though as individuals 
 they might still enjoy the blessings of the Mosaic 
 covenant, yet nationally they had reduced themselves 
 to the same level as Edom, or Moab, or any of the 
 other neighbouring tribes ; and however closely they 
 misht imitate at Bethel the sacrifices at Jerusalem, 
 
REJECTION OE THE TEN TRIBES. 23 1 
 
 in God's sight it was but idolatry — the worship of a 
 golden calf. For as their sacrifices were not the ap- 
 pointed symbols of the one true Sacrifice, in due time 
 to be offered upon the cross, they were an abomina- 
 tion, just as much as the sacrifices offered by the 
 heathen. When, then, they were removed from their 
 land, there was no restoration in store for them ; they 
 maintained no separate existence in the countries 
 whither they were carried, but were merged among 
 the general population. From the erroneous sup- 
 position, that the descendants of Jacob possessed an 
 intrinsic merit independent of the purpose to which 
 God had called them, many .have imagined that the 
 ten tribes would still be found somewhere as a distinct 
 people; but their enthusiastic enquiries have failed 
 in discovering them. Eeally, by parity of reason, as 
 Esau by selling his birthright forfeited all share in 
 the covenant of Abraham, so did the ten tribes, by 
 forsaking the Mosaic law, cut themselves off from the 
 possession of the promises. They fell back into the 
 position of the Edomites, and all that we can expect 
 is that so very remarkable a people may have left 
 traces of their features, and character, and customs, in 
 the districts to which they were removed. 
 
 But further, this chapter, the forty-third, gives the 
 first indications of the truth so fully declared in the 
 last nine chapters, that the lineal Israel shall be re- 
 jected. The Prophet accuses them of having broken 
 the covenant between them and Jehovah. They had 
 been weary of God, and neglected even the ceremonial 
 law, and had made God to serve with their sins : and 
 
232, SERMON VIII. 
 
 so great was their moral depravity, that the Prophet 
 elsewhere declares that even the fulfilling on their 
 part of the ritual law would be hateful in God's 
 sight a . Even as regards the great truth of God's 
 unity, of which Israel was the appointed witness, it 
 is plain that they did not hold it, but that idolatry 
 was openly and generally practised in Jerusalem and 
 .the surrounding districts, in spite of the example 
 and zealous efforts of Hezekiah to suppress it. Even 
 at court a party daily increasing in influence was in 
 its favour, and was supported by the authority of Ma- 
 nasseh, upon whose accession to the throne it gained 
 the entire preponderance, and succeeded in reversing 
 the whole policy of Hezekiah's reign, and in openly 
 establishing the worship of Moloch in Jerusalem. 
 
 Joined, therefore, with promises of mercy, we read 
 also of Israel's doom ; her doom as a nation, and not 
 as a Church : — " Thy first father hath sinned, and thy 
 teachers have transgressed against Me; therefore I 
 have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have 
 given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches." 
 Her chiefs, and teachers, and rulers had been faithless 
 to the covenant, and therefore all that belonged to 
 her nationally, — her glorious temple, her magnificent 
 ritual, the ministering priests who were the princes of 
 her sanctuary, — are profaned ; become, that is, com- 
 mon, with no special privileges, no sanctity in God's 
 sight : and Jacob, which had once been the inheritor 
 of the blessing, Mis under a curse, and is rejected 
 because it had rejected Christ ; and Israel, once so 
 * Isa. i. 11—15. 
 
THE JEWISH CHURCH BARREN. 233 
 
 highly favoured among nations, must henceforward, 
 in the words of another prophet, "be removed into 
 all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be 
 a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all 
 places whither God will drive them V 
 
 In the second nine chapters we meet again with 
 the same subject, — the rejection of the Jews as a 
 nation, and the development of Judaism into the 
 Christian Church ; only it is now more directly con- 
 nected with the calling of the Gentiles. Already, in 
 the fifty-third chapter, we have the general promise 
 that the Messiah's work shall not be in vain: "He 
 shall see His seed;" "He shall see of the travail of 
 His soul, and shall be satisfied ;" "He shall justify 
 many." But in the fifty-fourth chapter, in which the 
 Church is summoned to rejoice in her Redeemer's vic- 
 tory, the subject is more fully set forth. For in ad- 
 dressing her the Prophet distinguishes her two great 
 stages, describing her as she existed under the Mosaic 
 economy, as a married wife, but barren ; while the 
 Gentiles were as a wife forsaken and desolate, but 
 upon which the pleasure of God is about again to rest, 
 as she is gathered unto Him in Christ. And in this 
 ingathering of the Gentiles the Jews are summoned 
 to rejoice. It is the barren wife who is commanded 
 to break forth into singing ; their Church, that is, so 
 destitute of spiritual life, so barren of holy men. But 
 they shall be so no longer; for the apostles of the 
 Lord, and the devout Jews, gathered from every land 
 of the dispersion to Jerusalem at Pentecost, shall so 
 
 b Jcr. xxiv. 9. 
 
234 SERMON VIII. 
 
 earnestly labour in spreading the knowledge of the 
 truth, that " she shall break forth on the right hand 
 and on the left ; and her seed shall inherit the Gen- 
 tiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." 
 And thenceforward the Church shall no more be re- 
 proached for her unfruitfulness ; for " more are the 
 children of the desolate than the children of the mar- 
 ried wife, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Elsewhere, in the last section, the Prophet returns 
 to this metaphor, but there it is the Jewish Church 
 which is called Azubah, the forsaken one; for when 
 she was childless, when all God's mercies to her were 
 barren of results, her privileges unused, and but few 
 who learnt from her law to lead holy lives, God was 
 as a husband estranged from her : but when the truth 
 went forth from Jerusalem, and Jewish lips could say 
 that "their sound had gone forth into all the earth, 
 and their words unto the end of the world," her name 
 was changed to Hephzibah, one, that is, in whom her 
 husband had pleasure, and her land was called Beulah, 
 married, "for the Lord delighted in her, and her land 
 was married." 
 
 In the fifty-fourth chapter she is spoken of in 
 similar terms, as " a woman forsaken and grieved in 
 spirit, the wife indeed of her husband's youth, but 
 now refused." When, therefore, she is called upon 
 to rejoice in the numerous offspring of the wife once 
 desolate, it is because there can be no rivalry between 
 the two Churches. The Gentile world had been in- 
 deed as a desolate woman, left, without any special 
 revelation, to the dim obscurity of natural religion, 
 
ABOLITION OF JUDAISM. 235 
 
 and the fading vestiges of tradition; but when it 
 heard the summons to faith borne to it by Jewish 
 messengers, it was into the Jewish Church that it was 
 gathered, and admitted to the participation of privi- 
 leges which the Jew had long enjoyed. We must 
 remember that the Prophet's words are simply meta- 
 phors, and that while a contrast is possible between 
 the Jewish Church, the barren wife of God's youth, 
 and the Gentile world, a woman desolate and forsaken, 
 there is no contrast possible between the two as they 
 become the one Christian Church ; and the elder 
 Church, in gathering unto her the desolate Gentile 
 world, may well rejoice that she thereby gains new 
 life, and strength, and vigour, and becomes the spiri- 
 tual mother of a numerous progeny. It is true that in 
 thus enlarging the bounds of her habitation she must 
 abandon all that was local, and temporary, and distinc- 
 tively Jewish in her law ; that she must adapt herself 
 to a wider and nobler sphere, and cast off the trammels 
 and imperfections of a mere preparatory stage. But 
 for this the prophets constantly had endeavoured to 
 prepare the Jewish mind. The fasts and festivals, the 
 sacrifices and offerings, the rites and observances of 
 the Mosaic ritual, were more frequently treated by 
 them with disdain, than with approval. With one 
 voice they warned the people that God's law did net 
 consist in these things. It was its moral precepts 
 which they pressed home to the conscience : that 
 God's fast is to unloose the bands of wickedness; 
 that His will is that men should do justly, and love 
 mercy, and walk humbly with llim. And these and 
 
236 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the like lessons they enforced by explaining the spi- 
 ritual meaning of the divine ordinances, shewing that 
 the true sacrifices are those of righteousness, and that 
 God's dwelling is not a temple made with hands, but 
 the man who is of a meek and contrite spirit. 
 
 These portions of the law are not abrogated: all 
 that the prophets valued, and taught the people to 
 value, is eternal as He who gave it ; and we still 
 possess it, by virtue of being that same Church to 
 which God of old revealed His will. At the most 
 holy rite of our religion we recite its moral precepts ; 
 and its truths, separated from all temporary and local 
 admixture, are the subject of our creeds and articles. 
 Our faith is the Jewish faith, not indeed as it was 
 a growing light up to the time of the Messiah's 
 advent, but as the full mid- day light, with every 
 truth clearly revealed which of old had been veiled 
 in type and symbol. There is therefore nothing won- 
 derful in the Jewish Church rejoicing over the multi- 
 tude of her Gentile sons. The Jewish nation may 
 grieve ; for it had separated itself from the Jewish 
 Church, and had framed the vain conceit of universal 
 empire, and of a vassal world bowing at its feet. In- 
 stead of this, it is the Jewish Church which has em- 
 braced the Gentiles within its ample folds. By the 
 mouth of Jewish fishermen we were summoned to re- 
 ceive her faith, and accept as our Saviour her Messiah. 
 The promise which had been the consolation of her 
 forefathers is the foundation of our hopes. The Mes- 
 siah for whose advent she had longed is the Christ 
 whom we worship. And everywhere as the Apostles 
 
EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL IN JUDAISM RETAINED. 237 
 
 went with their message from land to land, they first 
 addressed themselves to the Jews, and round the little 
 knot of believing Jews the more numerous Gentile 
 converts gathered. The Jews accepted no new creed, 
 they went not out to join the Gentiles, they did not 
 abandon their religion ; but on the contrary, searched 
 their own sacred books for the proof whether the 
 Apostles' words were so. The world, therefore, classed 
 Jew and Christian together, and rightly so. For the 
 new converts adopted the habits of the Jews who 
 were their fathers in the faith; they modelled their 
 worship upon the customs and forms of the synagogue ; 
 the Old Testament, especially in its didactic portions, 
 became the rule of their life, and in their deaths they 
 followed the mode of Jewish sepulture. To this day 
 we retain the Jewish habit of asking a blessing upon 
 our meals, and the custom so long universal of writing 
 " In peace" upon the sepulchres of the dead was bor- 
 rowed from their immemorial practice. The great ques- 
 tion of the early Church was the extent of subjection 
 due to the Jewish law; not whether its real and 
 deeper truths, but whether also its symbolic rites and 
 burdensome ceremonies, were of eternal obligation. 
 And when the Church assembled at Jerusalem so- 
 lemnly to debate this weighty matter, no Gentile was 
 present in their conclave. It was the Jew who 
 authoritatively decided that the positive enactments 
 of the law were binding only until Christ came ; and 
 the Apostle who laboured most earnestly in separating 
 what had merely been preparatory from what was 
 eternal and immutable, was " of the stock of Israel, of 
 
238 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews ; and 
 as touching the law a Pharisee." 
 
 In the early Church there was never any doubt 
 about the obligation of keeping the Jewish law. The 
 works of their writers abound with quotations from it, 
 and generally from the Old Testament Scriptures, to 
 a far greater extent than would be usual with similar 
 writings in the present day ; and, to state the case in 
 their own words, the law was binding upon Jew and 
 Gentile alike. It was the Deuteronomy, the second 
 law, the law made harder and more burdensome be- 
 cause of the idolatry practised while Moses was in the 
 holy mount, — it was this which it was a sin in Chris- 
 tians to keep. "The original law," we read, "was that 
 which the Lord God spake before the people made the 
 calf, and worsl^ped idols, and it consisted of ten com- 
 mandments and judgments. But after they served 
 idols, justly God laid upon them such bonds as they 
 deserved. But beware that thou lay them not on 
 thee : for the Saviour came chiefly that He might 
 fulfil the law, and loose us from the bonds of the 
 second law c ." And ever has the Church retained all 
 that was essential in Judaism. We still daily read 
 their Scriptures, and make them, with the words of 
 our Lord and His Apostles, our joint rule of life ; their 
 psalms each month are recited in our services ; we 
 still keep one day in seven as our day of rest, but no 
 longer is it a bondage, but has been made, by the 
 higher motives of Christianity, subservient to our 
 moral and spiritual good; and still do we observe 
 c Didascalia Apost. Syr., cd. Lagarde, p. 5. ' 
 
PURPOSE OF JEWISH INSTITUTIONS. 239 
 
 three great festivals, though no longer in honour of 
 earthly deliverances, and of God's goodness in the 
 natural world, but in grateful remembrance of the 
 chief acts of our redemption by Christ. 
 
 But everything which belonged to the Jews as 
 a nation, both in their civil institutions and in their 
 Church establishment, as it has no longer any use or 
 meaning, has ceased to exist. Of these enactments 
 many had no higher object than to keep the people 
 from contact with the heathen nations round ; many 
 belonged only to their political and social life ; while 
 others more or less directly typified the sacrifice of 
 Christ. The object, therefore, of these statutes was 
 to provide for the existence of the chosen people, to 
 whose keeping the promise of a Saviour had been en- 
 trusted, and to embody that promise in such institu- 
 tions as might serve to keep it ever prominently before 
 their view. But the essence of the law consisted in 
 the promise itself, and those accompanying truths 
 which are generally necessary for salvation. This was 
 the real inheritance of the Jewish Church, and this 
 we now possess; only these truths have been more 
 clearly set forth, and their meaning and obligation 
 more fully shewn, in the final revelation of the Gospel. 
 And if in matters indifferent the Church has retained 
 many Jewish customs, it has only been because of 
 their usefulness, and adaptation to the wants of a 
 Christian community. 
 
 The Jewish Church, therefore, may well rejoice 
 that now in her full development she is no longer 
 barren as of old, but is fruitful in men of holy lives, 
 
240 SEEilON VIII. 
 
 and in great and constraining principles. In old time 
 there was probably never more than a small portion 
 of the people — a remnant, as the prophets call it — to 
 whom the law was more than a round of unmeaning 
 ceremonies ; and Juda?a itself was but as a speck upon 
 the earth's surface. Even now it may be true that 
 Christianity is but of limited extent : but it has raised 
 the nations which profess it to the foremost rank in 
 power, and influence, and civilization ; even the mass 
 of the people it controls with a force unknown to other 
 religions, while in numerous individuals it is the rule 
 of their daily conduct, and of their most secret feel- 
 ings ; and the principles which it enunciates have 
 directed the whole course of modern thought and 
 progress. Even erroneous views of the doctrines of 
 Christianity have retained something of the vigour 
 of the parent stock; and while other religions have 
 been content with an external obedience, and with 
 the practice of formal rites, Christianity ever has 
 claimed, and still claims, the heart, and demands of 
 those who profess it, that they should submit even 
 their inmost wills to the pure and holy will of God. 
 
 But while the Jewish Church has thus attained to 
 its legitimate development in Christianity, — the reli- 
 gion, that is, of the Messiah, — the Jewish polity, on 
 the contrary, has ceased to exist. Repeatedly, from 
 the time when first they set up a king, the Jews 
 nationally had separated themselves from their Church, 
 and the breach widened as their rulers more and more 
 refused obedience to the counsels of the prophets ; 
 but they finally and definitely severed themselves 
 
THE BELIEYING JEWS THE CHURCH. 24 1 
 
 from it only when they cast out of their synagogues 
 all who acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth was the 
 Messiah. As long as the theocracy lasted, Church 
 and State had been with them united and the same ; 
 but the establishment of the royal power did not 
 necessarily involve an opposition between the two 
 elements. Their civil government might have been 
 faithful, as David and Hezekiah were, to the prin- 
 ciples set forth in the Law and the Prophets. As 
 a fact it generally was unfaithful ; but even after our 
 Lord's crucifixion their Sanhedrim might have ex- 
 amined the proofs of His divine mission, and have 
 accepted Him as their promised Christ. The course 
 they actually took was to reject Christ, and God has 
 rejected them from being a nation. But though by 
 this decision they ceased to be the depositaries of the 
 divine promises, yet St. Paul denies that God thereby 
 cast off His people. For as in Elijah's time, when 
 the ten tribes forsook the Mosaic covenant and their 
 king established an idolatrous worship, there were 
 seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, 
 even so, he argues, at the present time also there is 
 " a remnant according to the election of grace." And 
 it was in this remnant that God recognised His true 
 people ; and never, probably, had it been so numerous 
 as when in every synagogue of the dispersion there 
 were gathering round those three thousand devout 
 men, who on the first Whitsuntide had received the 
 word, all such in every place as were waiting for the 
 consolation of Israel. And still for forty years Judaea 
 was the chief seat of the Christian Church, and every - 
 
 R 
 
242. SERMON VIII. 
 
 where its missionaries made the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel the first objects of their care ; so that 
 never were God's mercies greater to those who were 
 truly His than when the outward bonds which united 
 the nation to Him were about to be broken, and the 
 Mosaic ritual and national worship about to cease. 
 
 To this cessation of their national existence the 
 prophets had ever looked forward, and endeavoured 
 to prepare the minds of the people for its approach. 
 Even Jacob had warned them that the sceptre must 
 depart from Judah when Shiloh came. What place 
 could there be for the Aaronic priesthood, when the 
 true Priest had entered upon His office ? "What room 
 for sacrifice and offering, when the very Paschal Lamb 
 had made the Atonement ? And with the symbolic 
 rites, the earthly kingdom must also cease ; for as the 
 Messiah's true kingdom is not of this world, its con- 
 tinuance was plainly incompatible with His spiritual 
 sovereignty. There could not exist at one and the 
 same time two kingdoms, one founded on material 
 promises and with temporal sanctions, the other spi- 
 ritual and eternal, and both be true. For a time the 
 earthly kingdom had a true existence and a rational 
 purpose, as symbolizing and preparing for the spiri- 
 tual kingdom in due time to be revealed ; it served to 
 receive and guard the truth which God was pleased 
 gradually to reveal ; and it also provided a fit place 
 and scene for our Lord's ministry. But when the 
 better and enduring kingdom had come, the pre- 
 paratory must pass away. Even if the Jews had 
 received Christ as a nation, and therefore had not 
 
JEWISH CHURCH MERGED IN THE CHRISTIAN. 243 
 
 had their polity and institutions swept away by the 
 avenging armies of Borne, still must these things have 
 ceased. Just as everywhere the little band of Jews 
 round whom the Gentile converts gathered, gradually 
 lost their nationality, and were merged in those Gentiles 
 and became one with them, so must temple and sacri- 
 fice, priest and Levite, tribe and lineage, their laws 
 and rites and ceremonies, everything, in short, distinct- 
 ively Jewish, have been absorbed in Christianity, and 
 disappeared. The people might have continued, but 
 they would have been simply a Christian people in- 
 habiting Judoea, with no special privileges, no peculiar 
 promises, nothing to distinguish them in their relation 
 to God from a Gentile- Church far away at the ends 
 of the earth. Their high lineage would have given 
 them an especial interest in the eyes of other nations, 
 just as the sight of their city now awakens strong 
 emotions in the heart of every Christian traveller ; 
 but it is the memory of the past, not the actual 
 present, which stirs his feelings. There is no mani- 
 festation now of God's glory there, nor are prayers more 
 sure of acceptance when made within the precincts 
 of its once glorious temple than in the most remote 
 regions of the globe ; nor does any special providence 
 watch over its fortunes. A Christian Israel might 
 be the highest among Christian nations in birth, but 
 probably it would not be foremost in purity of doc- 
 trine, or knowledge, or power, or influence. For the 
 Gentiles are not called into an inferior place, — into 
 that outer court to which the Jews of old arrogantly 
 banished their proselytes ; but whatever the seed of 
 
 r2 
 
244 SERMON VIII. 
 
 Abraham possessed in promise or privilege, in that 
 the Gentiles fully share. As a matter of fact, this 
 slow absorption of Judaism did not take place ; the 
 Jews nationally rejected Christ ; and God saw fit 
 to remove a danger out of the Church's path by 
 the complete obliteration of the Jewish polity and 
 priesthood. Had they continued, they might have 
 drawn away the Christian Church to the same con- 
 fidence in mere external observances which had made 
 the Jewish Church so barren. They might have 
 given a preponderance to principles and tendencies 
 from which it cost the Church, as it was, a vigorous 
 struggle to escape. And probably it was even a 
 greater mercy to the Jews than to the Gentile world : 
 for those who in every city received the Gospel were 
 rescued from the vain folly of attempting to combine 
 Judaism with Christianity ; while such as rejected 
 it then, or reject it now, must surely sometimes 
 doubt whether a divine religion, which has become 
 and continues an impossibility, has not had its pur- 
 pose fulfilled; and if so, what other fulfilment has 
 there been but Christianity ? And when, from time 
 to time, any of Jewish lineage do draw near unto 
 Christ, they are obliged to accept the Gospel as a 
 spiritual religion, from which all the gross and material 
 elements of their old faith have been purged away. 
 Even in justice, therefore, was God's mercy shewn ; 
 for He did but remove that which had become obso- 
 lete, and which, had it still been permitted to exist, 
 might have proved a stumbling-block in the Church's 
 path, by causing it to retain too strong an element 
 
JEWISH PROPHECIES FULFILLED IN CHRISTIANITY. 245 
 
 of Judaism in its rites and institutions and modes 
 of thought. 
 
 The Jewish Church, therefore, has sustained no in- 
 jury. She was barren : there were but few whose 
 lives were influenced by the truths of which she was 
 the depositary. Though planted upon a fruitful hill, 
 she had brought forth only wild grapes. The state 
 of morality among the Jews was probably considerably 
 in advance of that which prevailed generally among 
 the heathen, but the books which narrate their his- 
 tory forbid our entertaining a very high idea of their 
 moral character. Upon the advent of the Messiah, 
 their Church is to appear in a more glorious aspect : — 
 " Her stones," we read, " shall be laid in antimony, 
 and her foundations in sapphires ;" " All her children 
 shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the 
 peace of her children;" "In righteousness she shall 
 be established ;" " No weapon that is formed against 
 her shall prosper." And henceforward she is exposed 
 to no further vicissitudes ; no further change awaits 
 her : for " as the waters of Noah shall no more go 
 over the earth, so has Jehovah sworn that He will 
 not be wroth with her, nor rebuke her." Prophecies 
 such as these neither have had, nor can have, any ful- 
 filment in Jewish history. They belong, not to the 
 national and carnal portion of Judaism, but to its 
 spiritual element, which still exists, but has been 
 developed into the Christian Church. In its path 
 there dwells no Jewish nation in the Holy Land to 
 give even the appearance of a Church resting upon 
 temporal sanctions. The " city of God" is no longer 
 
246 SEEMON VIII. 
 
 of the earth, earthy, but is a spiritual community, 
 governed by laws given by inspiration, guided by 
 the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, with its chief 
 Ruler in heaven, with promises which relate to the 
 soul and not to the body, and with requirements to 
 be fulfilled only by a holy life and by the affections 
 being set upon heaven. Its truths are indeed em- 
 bodied in institutions, and rites, and ceremonies ; it 
 has a form of government and material organization, 
 because these things are indispensable for the ade- 
 quate discharge of its appointed duties : but the ends 
 which it proposes to itself are spiritual; the fitting 
 and preparing man for a heavenly inheritance. And 
 in labouring for this end, it frames its institutions 
 for the sole use of edifying, that " all things may be 
 done decently and in order ;" and that " the whole 
 body by joints and bands, having nourishment minis- 
 tered, and knit together, may increase according to 
 the increase of God." 
 
 Within this community the true Jew finds the full 
 realization of all the most glorious promises of the 
 previous dispensation : nay, the careful examination of 
 that dispensation would be the best preparative for 
 studying the claims of the Gospel ; for it ever looked 
 onward unto Christ. But once admitted, he must 
 cease to be a Jew. The higher development is in- 
 compatible with the preparatory stage. Just as at 
 first the Church, so entirely Jewish, abandoned, though 
 not without a struggle, its nationality, as a thing now 
 without a meaning; so in all ages, in entering into 
 a spiritual covenant, the carnal Israel parts with all 
 
JEWISH DISTINCTIONS ABOLISHED. 247 
 
 its material and earthly hopes. The spiritual per- 
 fection to which St. Paul had attained was such " that 
 though he had known Christ after the flesh, yet hence- 
 forth knew he Him no more." And something of the 
 same spirit must influence the Jewish convert: he 
 must not think of retainiug any special promises and 
 prerogatives in which the Gentiles do not share, but 
 must be content to " count all things but loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his 
 Lord." 
 
 In old time, several generations must pass before 
 the proselyte was upon an equal footing with the Jew ; 
 and his admittance even into the outer court was pos- 
 sible only by his submission to a weary round of cere- 
 monies. Even then he held so inferior a place that 
 it was profanation for a Jew to intermarry with his 
 children, and much more with one who was himself 
 a convert. But in the fifty-fifth chapter the Prophet 
 taught them that all these obstructions were to be 
 removed. The blessiugs of their covenant were no 
 longer to be churlishly hoarded up, but " every one 
 who thirsted was to come to their waters : and the 
 wine and milk were to be bestowed without money 
 and without price." And lest these metaphorical ex- 
 pressions should not be understood, he explained them 
 himself as signifying the means of grace, the means 
 whereby men lead a holy life, whereby " the soul 
 lives;" and bade "the wicked therefore forsake his 
 way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and re- 
 turn unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon 
 
248 SERMON VIII. 
 
 him, and to our God, and He will abundantly par- 
 don." It is title enough to His mercy that men 
 forsake their sins and return unto Him. Nor was the 
 Prophet content with declaring these general prin- 
 ciples, but in the next chapter made a still further 
 advance in distinguishing the two dispensations, by 
 shewing that all personal disabilities and national dis- 
 tinctions were to be done away. "Let not the son 
 of the stranger, that hath joined himself to Jehovah, 
 speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me 
 from His people : neither let the eunuch say, I am 
 a dry tree . . . For I will give unto them in My house, 
 and within My walls, a place and a name better than 
 of sons and of daughters :" — a better name, therefore, 
 than that of the lineal descendants of Abraham : — " I 
 will give them an everlasting name that shall not be 
 cut off." It is the same lesson which St. Peter learnt, 
 that " with God is no respect of persons, but in every 
 nation, and not among the Jews only, he that feareth 
 Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." 
 But often as the prophets had declared it, nevertheless 
 it needed an express revelation to induce the apostle 
 to consent to its practical application; so little in- 
 fluence do abstract truths exercise over our minds, 
 when our prejudices and the daily habits of our lives 
 are opposed to them. 
 
 But the truths thus clearly taught in the first two 
 sections of the prophecy are much more fully and di- 
 rectly declared in the last nine chapters. Metaphori- 
 cal expressions, which might have failed in conveying 
 to the mind an exact idea of the Prophet's meaning, are 
 
NEW COVENANT BELONGS TO THE GENTILES. 249 
 
 there replaced by statements so plain that none could 
 misunderstand their application ', as where we read 
 that in the new dispensation there shall be neither 
 temple nor sacrifice 11 , and that the priests shall no 
 longer be of Aaron's line e . Expressly God declares, 
 that He will be " sought of them that asked not for 
 Him ; and will be found of them that sought Him 
 not : and that He will say, Behold Me, behold Me, 
 unto a nation that was not called by His name;" 
 whereas of Israel He adds, " I have spread out my 
 hands all the day unto a rebellious people." God 
 will nevertheless shew them mercy, " for His servants' 
 sakes He will not destroy them all." But His justice 
 must visit them : "I will number you," He says, " to 
 the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter :" 
 and while the Gentiles enjoy the blessings and privi- 
 leges of the new covenant, the Jews, excepting the 
 believing remnant, shall forfeit them by their own 
 wilful obduracy. u Behold, saith the Lord God, My 
 servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry : behold, 
 My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty : 
 behold, My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be 
 • ashamed : behold, My servants shall sing for joy of 
 heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall 
 howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your 
 name for a curse unto My chosen : for the Lord God 
 shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name f ." 
 In these words we have not merely the call of the 
 Gentiles, but the prediction that they will obey the 
 
 d Isa. lxvi. 1 — 3. e Ibid. 21. 
 
 ' Isa. lxv. 1, 2, 8, 12—15. 
 
2 5 O SERMON VIII. 
 
 call, and that the Church will mainly consist of them : 
 but that while there will indeed be a remnant of the 
 Jews, " a seed which shall inherit Judah's mountains," 
 there will be no full harvest ; for the great mass of 
 the nation will reject the Messiah, and their very 
 name therefore will disappear ; and the Church's title 
 given her in the Greek city of Antioch will shew how 
 complete is the distinction between her full develop- 
 ment in Christ, and the time when her privileges 
 were confined to a small province of Palestine. 
 
 It is true that in describing this entire change the 
 Prophet draws his imagery from what actually existed 
 in his day, and that he predicts the glorious establish- 
 ment and ever-widening spread of Christianity in 
 terms borrowed from the Mosaic ritual. But this 
 could not well be otherwise ; for men can only use the 
 language and ideas of their own times, even when the 
 things signified belong to remote ages, and a very dif- 
 ferent state of circumstances. But as there are various 
 questions connected with this third section of the pro- 
 phecy, which would require a longer time for their 
 proper consideration than would be possible now, I 
 must defer them until some future opportunity. For 
 to-day it will have been enough if I have succeeded 
 in shewing that there is a real unity of subject in all 
 three portions of the prophecy, and that the title of 
 Evangelic Prophet is due to Isaiah, not only as having 
 set forth the death of our Bedeemcr, and the doctrines 
 which explain His death, but also as having clearly 
 foretold the nature and character of Christ's universal 
 Church: that it was to bo no mere enlargement of 
 
CONCLUSION. 25 1 
 
 Judaism, but that there was to be a vital change in 
 its entire theory, so that all that was local, and tem- 
 porary, and distinctly Jewish should disappear, and 
 only the spiritual element remain; and that in this 
 Church the Gentiles would so largely predominate as 
 everywhere to absorb the believing Jews ; and that 
 thus reconstituted, and made an universal Church, 
 it would carry into all lands the tidings of salva- 
 tion through a crucified Eedeemer, and summon men 
 everywhere, not to earthly privileges, but to par- 
 ticipate in that heavenly hope which the Emmanuel 
 Himself condescended to share, when "for the joy 
 that was set before Him, He endured the cross, de- 
 spising the shame, and is set down at the right hand 
 of the throne of God." 
 
SEEMON IX. 
 
 Isaiah lxv. 17. 
 
 " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the 
 former shall not be rejnembered, nor come into mind." 
 
 TTPON a former occasion, in preaching upon this 
 verse, I sketched the main outlines of Isaiah's 
 teaching with respect to the development of the Jew- 
 ish into the Christian Church, as contained in the 
 two first portions of this his final prophecy; and I 
 then briefly combated the idea that the Prophet's 
 symbols and figures, which naturally were taken 
 from the state of things then existing, must neces- 
 sarily, or would even probably, have a literal ful- 
 filment. My object was to shew that these prophe- 
 cies belong to the Christian Church as Christian, 
 — as embracing, therefore, both Jew and Gentile 
 within her fold, upon equal terms, and with all dis- 
 tinction and disparity removed. In the Christian 
 Church the Jew retains no right by reason of his 
 lineage, he can reserve to himself no prerogatives; 
 nor must he so interpret the promises as to exclude 
 Christians from their equal participation. We are 
 not living under a double dispensation, with two 
 Churches, each with its own sanctions and its pe- 
 culiar inheritance; but in that Church which is 
 the one body of Christ, and in which "he is not a 
 
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED. 2$$ 
 
 Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circum- 
 cision which is outward in the flesh." 
 
 The reservation of certain special privileges for 
 Jews has probably arisen from the erroneous suppo- 
 sition of there being a contrariety or opposition be- 
 tween the Jewish and the Christian Church. Of 
 course they are capable of being contrasted in the 
 various periods of their existence, — just as we contrast 
 the Christian Church as it was in primitive times 
 with that same Church in mediaeval and modern 
 times, though in its essence and definition, in its 
 nature and in its rights, it has ever been one and 
 the same; nor has the truth of which it is the de- 
 positary at any period been different in kind or in 
 degree from that which it now holds. And naturally 
 a still broader contrast may be drawn between the 
 Church before and after the advent of the Messiah. 
 For to the Jew truth was given in shadow, and out- 
 line, and prophecy ; to the Christian it has been given 
 in substance. The one looked forward to a promise 
 to be accomplished; for the other that promise has 
 been fulfilled. In the earlier dispensation revelation 
 was a faint light, gradually brightening unto the per- 
 fect day ; in the later it was from the first the noon- 
 tide splendour of the Messiah's teaching, and the di- 
 vine words of the Apostles. Henceforward no new 
 revelation is to be expected; no line of prophets 
 now exists to declare new truths, or modify old. 
 Even of the councils of the Church, we affirm that 
 they must not decree as an article of the faith any- 
 thing that cannot be proved by Holy Writ. Our 
 
254 SERMON IX. 
 
 business is simply to understand, to hold fast, and 
 to profit by the truth once delivered unto the saints. 
 
 But however great may be the contrast between 
 the Jewish Church as being the preparation, and the 
 Christian Church as being the completeness, there 
 is no distinction in their inner essence. They form 
 the one revelation of God to mankind, and the later 
 dispensation is but the ripeness, the maturity of the 
 earlier. And it would be as possible for the child 
 to exist side by side with himself when grown to 
 man's estate, as for the preparatory Church to con- 
 tinue contemporaneously with its own development. 
 The one grew out of the other, and is in fact the 
 other in its mature and lasting stage; and whatever 
 belonged to the Jew in his covenant relation to God 
 belongs now to the Christian, excepting those childish 
 things which by reason of riper age he has put away. 
 God's dealings with mankind form one great whole, 
 from the day when He gave to her whose name was 
 Life, as being the mother of us all, the central promise 
 of our faith, that her Seed should be the Deliverer, 
 to the day when that promise was fulfilled in the 
 Virgin's Child ; and thence ever onward until the dis- 
 pensation shall close, and all mankind stand before 
 the throne of the woman's Seed in judgment, to re- 
 ceive according to the deeds done in the body, whe- 
 ther they were good or whether they were evil. 
 
 The promises, moreover, of Isaiah were made to the 
 Jewish nation because it contained the Jewish Church, 
 — just as now the Church visible has possession of 
 the promises because it contains the Church invisible. 
 
isaiah's promises general. 255 
 
 In theory, indeed, the two were commensurate ; the 
 Jewish nation ought to have been identical with the 
 Jewish Church. But it was not so ; — just as now we 
 know that many are called, but few chosen. And just 
 as we are not anxious to make this failure, so to speak, 
 too prominent, but treat our ordinances as if they in- 
 variably produced the wished-for effect, drawing no 
 sharp line of distinction between such of the Church's 
 professing members as are so only outwardly, and such 
 as have made their calling and election sure, but 
 treating all alike as her regenerate sons ; ever warn- 
 ing them, indeed, that a life of holiness must be the 
 seal of their acceptance, but leaving the separation 
 between the true and the false to the unerring Judge 
 above ; encircling all alike, when living, within the 
 Church's fold, and when dead, uttering over them 
 the same words of pious hope : just as St. Paul ad- 
 dressed his Epistles to congregations of saints and 
 elect men, even when about to rebuke them sharply 
 for sins of the darkest dye : — so was it with Isaiah. 
 It was no business of his too exactly to distinguish 
 between the Israel which was so only after the flesh, 
 and that which was truly so after the spirit. He 
 warns, rebukes, exhorts, comforts, encourages, gives 
 glorious promises to all alike. But his words do not 
 equally belong to all ; for they are each individually 
 working out their probation, and in the aggregate of 
 their individual probation the nation will also be 
 proved, and attain to its doom. The Prophet does 
 indeed from time to time foretell the misuse which 
 Israel would make of its privileges, and its consequent 
 
1$6 SERMON IX. 
 
 rejection ; but it was necessary that he should so fore- 
 tell it as not to interfere with their free-will, and 
 rather as warning and admonishing them of the in- 
 evitable consequences of their misdeeds, than as de- 
 claring the irrevocable decrees of the Almighty. For 
 man's free-will, and therefore his probation, would 
 be an impossibility were either the threatenings or 
 the promises of God unconditional ; and this the 
 Church of old was taught in the prophecy of Jonah, 
 which contained the great lesson, that even after the 
 most definite predictions, — that "yet forty days, and 
 Nineveh shall be overthrown," the declarations of 
 the prophets might fail of their accomplishment if 
 men truly repented, and thereby obtained mercy of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Isaiah therefore addresses the Jews as God's chosen 
 people, and speaks of them as still being in possession 
 of His love ; and rightly so, for they were the Church. 
 And in describing the future glory to which the 
 Church should attain when her Messiah had come, 
 and His kingdom been established upon earth, he fitly 
 took as the groundwork of his description the highest 
 conceivable perfection of that state of things which 
 then existed, that is, of the theocracy, of which the 
 Jewish nation was the object, and Jerusalem the cen- 
 tre. The chapters which chiefly contain this descrip- 
 tion are the sixtieth, the sixty-second, and the sixty- 
 fifth, in the last of which we have a picture of what 
 is popularly called the millennial or paradisiacal state 
 of happiness. A new heaven and a new earth are 
 to be created, in which "there shall no more be an 
 
LANGUAGE OF ISAIAH METAPHORICAL. 257 
 
 infant of clays, nor an old man that hath not filled 
 his clays ;" there will be no premature decay, nor any 
 other kind of failure or disappointment; "they shall 
 not build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, 
 and another eat ; . . . they shall not labour in vain, 
 nor bring forth for trouble ;" there shall be a speedy 
 answer to prayer, — "Before they call, I will answer, 
 and while they are yet speaking, I will hear;" and 
 lastly, there shall be a time of general peace, — "The 
 wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall 
 eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the ser- 
 pent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
 My holy mountain, saith the Lord." 
 
 Now if the Prophet is describing in these words the 
 spiritual blessings of the Church, — if his images and 
 metaphors pourtray that state of things which does 
 partially exist in Christendom, and would fully exist 
 if men's professions of Christianity were sincere, and 
 their lives in accordance with their professions, — no- 
 thing could be easier of explanation. The Messiah's 
 advent is to inaugurate a new era, in which there will 
 be found everything requisite for the perfection of 
 man's moral and spiritual nature ; it is to bring him 
 into intimate communion with God, and subdue in 
 him every carnal and depraved appetite. But if the 
 Prophet's words are not metaphorical, but to be lite- 
 rally understood, they convey the promise merely of 
 long life ; of success in trade and agriculture, as the 
 result, not of human prudence and industry, but of 
 a special providence ; and, simultaneously, of a change 
 in the structural form of that portion of the animal 
 
258 SERMON IX. 
 
 creation which infallibly disappears before the ad- 
 vance of agriculture and civilization. Such an age of 
 material prosperity the Jewish Church certainly never 
 enjoyed ; and when we turn to the Christian Church, 
 we feel that it has been founded upon better pro- 
 mises. The very object of the Gospel is to wean men 
 from these earthly desires, and all who embrace it 
 are required to regard such things as matters indif- 
 ferent, and rather to be shunned than sought for. 
 The New Testament throughout summons Christ's 
 people to a warfare, to the endurance of tribulation, 
 to the abandonment of worldly wealth and carnal en- 
 joyment; and bids them wage an incessant struggle 
 against the inbred corruption of their own nature, 
 against temptation from without, and faintness and 
 lukewarmness from within. And the reward pro- 
 mised is discipline, — the loving chastisement of our 
 heavenly Father, — and with it Christ's gift of peace 
 to the soul. What reward would long life have been 
 to St. Paul, eager to depart, because that was far 
 better, yet content to remain and labour for the good 
 of others? What reward to Christian men to live 
 in houses of their own building, and eat the fruit of 
 trees of their own planting, when their citizenship is 
 in heaven, and their earnest desire to be conformed 
 to the likeness of that Saviour who had not where to 
 lay His head ? The promises of the New Testament 
 are not earthly success and bodily enjoyment, but 
 earthly trial and the subjection of the body, and un- 
 ceasing labour, and patient waiting, by which the 
 soul is prepared for heavenly blessedness ; and in 
 
DANGERS OF A MILLENNIUM. 259 
 
 supporting this " trial of their faith," Christian men 
 find their solace, not in being allowed to combine 
 earthly success with the discipline which fits them 
 for heaven, but in the foretaste of spiritual joys even 
 here ; " for the kingdom of heaven is within you." 
 
 On the contrary, the sanctions of the Jewish Church 
 were, in the main, temporal; the mind of the people 
 was not yet spiritual enough to be strongly moved by 
 spiritual promises ; and naturally, therefore, the Pro- 
 phet's language was drawn from that which would 
 have been the perfection of the blessings proposed to 
 the Jew under the terms of his covenant. But there 
 is every reason to believe that the higher and more 
 pious class of minds among the Jews were able to 
 penetrate behind the veil, and perceive that spiritual 
 blessings and privileges were set forth under the types 
 of earthly and carnal enjoyments. We know that 
 even among the followers of the false Prophet, their 
 best commentators have from early times regarded 
 the material joys of Paradise as types of pure and 
 spiritual pleasures ; and certainly Christians, having 
 the express teaching of our Lord and His Apostles, 
 ought not to cling to the " beggarly elements of the 
 law," nor imagine that temporal prosperity is one of 
 Christ's gifts. If whom the Lord loveth, He chast- 
 eneth ; if it be the trial of our faith which is precious ; 
 if, in a word, Christians are to take up their cross and 
 follow Christ, — a millennial period, as it is popularly 
 understood, would be a time full of the subtlest dan- 
 gers for the soul ; a time enervating and enfeebling, 
 with nothing to try men's faith, and thereby make it 
 
 s2 
 
260 SERMON IX. 
 
 strong, nothing to exercise their patience, and for- 
 bearance, and charity towards others, nothing to 
 make them watchful over themselves. It would call 
 forth no endurance, practise them in no manly and 
 Christian virtue. Piety and religion would be gre- 
 garious instead of personal, the virtue of the mass, 
 and not of the individual ; there would be no training 
 of the man, nothing to prepare those whose unhappy 
 lot it was to be born under such a dispensation for 
 a higher and better state of things, but everything 
 to make them worldly-minded, and to forget God. And 
 above all, God's great and wonderful gift of free-will, 
 by which man was made in the image of his Maker, 
 and became capable of good and evil, would be ex- 
 changed for instincts, no higher in kind, though ex- 
 ercised upon higher things, than those which now 
 serve to guide the inferior creation. 
 
 It seems, moreover, plain from the Prophet's own 
 words that he did not intend his language to be liter- 
 ally understood; for part of what he says is confessedly 
 metaphorical. The lion could not eat straw like the 
 bullock, and continue to be a lion; for the change in 
 his structure necessary to enable him to crop and 
 digest a vegetable diet would destroy in him that 
 differentia by virtue of which he is a lion. And even 
 were this change possible, nothing would be gained 
 by it. A lion so transformed would be a defect in 
 creation ; for it is the glory at present of the animal 
 world, that God has so formed it as to fit each mem- 
 ber of it for its place ; and the comparative anatomist 
 by the sight of a single bone can tell what was the 
 
BEASTS OF PREY NOT AN EVIL. l6l 
 
 general structure, the habits, and mode of life of the 
 animal to which it belonged, — so wonderful are the 
 works of God. But a beast of prey condemned to 
 a graminivorous life would be a blot, a defect in 
 creation, and would destroy the harmony and beauty 
 of the Creator's laws. And again, we should be, as 
 a matter of fact, no nearer a state of paradisiacal per- 
 fection than we are now, but rather the contrary. 
 The beasts of prey existed long before God prepared 
 a paradise for man's abode, and at the very time when 
 He pronounced all His works to be good. To suppose 
 that they are an evil, a defect, rests upon the false 
 assumption that the death of an animal is an evil. 
 The Manichees of old said that it was, and brought 
 forward the existence of death, and of beasts of prey, 
 as proofs that the Creator of the world was Himself 
 evil; but the Fathers of the Church who wrote 
 against this impious sect, denied that either one or 
 the other marred the perfection of Paradise. And 
 their arguments have been confirmed by the disco- 
 veries of modern times, which prove that from the 
 first life and death went hand in hand, and that long 
 before Adam was formed, monstrous animals, with 
 quaint and uncouth shapes, were busy on land and sea 
 preying upon one another, and death as active among 
 the members of the lower creation as it is now. 
 
 But if the Prophet's words themselves suggest that 
 they are to be metaphorically understood, so are there 
 higher considerations which militate against the view 
 that there wilL ever exist before the great day of judg- 
 ment a state either of general prosperity or of uni- 
 
262 SERMON IX. 
 
 versal piety. For the great purpose of this present 
 state of things seems to be the probation of God's 
 people, Now why, or how it is, we cannot answer ; 
 but certainly the fact seems to be, that probation is 
 possible only where the few have to struggle against 
 the many; our Lord Himself seems to tell us, that 
 faith will always be small in amount compared with 
 the vast mass of lukewarm semi-infidelity which will 
 surround it a , and that the few who live for another 
 world will be scarcely worthy of mention compared 
 with the many who are influenced by earthly mo- 
 tives b . It is a difficulty why this should be so, 
 a thing which seems hard to us, and beyond our 
 understanding ; but we may be sure that it is in no 
 respect inconsistent with God's goodness and mercy, 
 and that it seems hard to us only because we see but 
 a small part, and not the whole of God's dealings. 
 "We may then confine ourselves to the fact ; and the 
 teaching of Holy Scripture seems plainly to be, that 
 as for some ineffable reason the sufferings of Christ 
 were necessary, so it is also necessary that His peo- 
 ple should now " suffer with Him, that they may 
 be also glorified together c ." We may add, that the 
 smallness of Christ's flock is in accordance with the 
 general law of the Creator's works ; for certainly one 
 of the most striking things upon earth is the profuse 
 expenditure everywhere of means to produce a limited 
 result. It is seen in the incalculable periods during 
 which this earth existed before man appeared upon 
 its surface ; it is seen in the formation of so many 
 
 * Luke xviii. 8. b Matt. vii. 14. c Rom. viii. 17. 
 
DIFFICULTIES. 263 
 
 worlds in our own planetary system, the conditions of 
 which apparently negative the existence upon them 
 of the higher forms of life. On this earth it is most 
 painfully seen in the vast waste, as it seems to us in 
 our ignorance, of human life. Of the countless millions 
 of men now alive, how few are placed in such circum- 
 stances as to be capable of attaining even to a low 
 degree of morality, to say nothing of mental cultiva- 
 tion and religion. Even in our own country, in many 
 respects so highly favoured, if men are congregated 
 into large towns, coarse forms of infidelity seem of 
 necessity rapidly to pervade the mass ; and if they 
 dwell in thinly populated villages, the mind lies dor- 
 mant, and ignorance prevails. And between these 
 extremes, how many are the mental doubts, the hard 
 and difficult questions, which perplex our faith ; how 
 numerous the seductions from the world, and from 
 our own selves, which lower our moral state; how 
 overpowering the influence of the things amidst which 
 we live, to make our religion cold and formal ! All 
 these, and many such considerations, seem to shew 
 that when the Apostle warned men that "through 
 much tribulation they must enter the kingdom of 
 heaven," he was declaring not a fact, but a principle ; 
 that there is some reason, some wise moral necessity, 
 why it so should be. 
 
 And in musing upon these difficulties men wonder 
 that there should be so many stumblingblocks in the 
 believer's way. They feel that if they were almighty 
 they would remove them. They would have a world 
 without sin and sorrow, without guilt and shame, 
 without doubts and disputings. Of old time this led 
 
264 SERMON IX. 
 
 men into Manicheeism ; now it prompts them only to 
 catch at anything in the Bible which seems to favour 
 the notion of a millennium. In both cases the root 
 of the feeling is the same. It is discontent with the 
 state of things which God has appointed, as being 
 really best for us, and a protest against Him in His 
 character as Creator, because He has permitted not 
 merely the existence of evil, but that it should be so 
 dominant, and human probation so difficult. Had we 
 really faith in God's goodness, and a proper sense of 
 our own ignorance, we should feel sure that good and 
 wise purposes really are accomplished by this per- 
 mitted existence of evil, and that it is in the end 
 better for mankind that probation should be difficult 
 than that it should be easy. We can see that in 
 God's dealings with man there is something which 
 surpasses our powers ; something which we cannot 
 understand ; — I do not mean in revelation only, but in 
 all His works there is at the root a mystery which 
 we cannot penetrate. But our business is not to sup- 
 pose that we can measure and judge the ways of the 
 Infinite, but humbly to bow before Him as One whose 
 ways are not as our ways, neither His thoughts as 
 our thoughts. 
 
 ISTor is this more than right reason requires : for if 
 we knew all God's works, if the beginning and the 
 end were before us, as well as that small portion of 
 existence in which our lot is cast, and if our mental 
 powers were equal to the task, we might then be able 
 to form a judgment upon the question, whether God's 
 dealings with mankind are wise and just. Probably 
 hereafter we may understand His works ; it may be 
 
A MILLENNIUM NO ADEQUATE REWARD. 265 
 
 a part of the intellectual enjoyment of heaven to 
 meditate upon the wisdom and goodness which He 
 has displayed ; but it is quite certain that we have 
 neither sufficient materials, and probably not suffi- 
 cient powers of mind to form even a probable opinion 
 now upon His purposes in creation ; and it is the office 
 of faith, as being the evidence of things not seen, to 
 support us in our doubts, and strengthen us for the 
 task of bearing all the bodily and mental trials of life, 
 without wavering in our trust and confidence in our 
 heavenly Father. 
 
 We can see, however, that a millennium would be 
 no fit place or time of probation. The absence of 
 temptation, the easy benevolence which had to make 
 no sacrifices, the tranquil sleep of unstirred passions, 
 the piety by instinct, the removal of all necessity for 
 self-restraint and self-discipline, the need no longer to 
 watch and pray lest we entered into temptation, the 
 firm health, the long life, the material prosperity, — 
 all this is compatible with physical enjoyment; it 
 would be the perfection of our lower animal nature : 
 but the soul would not be trained by such things for 
 a spiritual existence, but would slumber in an inglorious 
 repose and an enfeebling and benumbing effeminacy. 
 
 But if it be intended as a reward to follow upon 
 man's probation, it is too little. To reward the body 
 for the struggle of the soul ; to give one, whose heart 
 is fixed upon heaven, earthly happiness and luxmy, 
 and mere physical enjoyment, while his higher nature 
 pined away in drowsy inactivity, is to give him a thing 
 not worth the striving after. Not for this have we 
 
266 SERMON IX. 
 
 been taught to pray, but that " we may have our per- 
 fect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, 
 in God's eternal and everlasting glory." To the true 
 Christian, weaned from the enjoyments of this world, 
 and with his affection set on things above, a millennium 
 would be but an intermediate purgatory, without its 
 purifying use ; and well might the waiting soul ex- 
 claim, How long, Lord, holy and true ? and grieve 
 over the protracted deferring of its better hopes. 
 
 We may conclude, therefore, that the images of 
 earthly prosperity are used by the prophets as symbols 
 of spiritual blessings. They took the highest perfec- 
 tion of the state of things which then existed, in order 
 to represent truths which no human language can 
 adequately convey : and, similarly, the main features 
 of the Christian Church are set forth under images 
 drawn from the Mosaic ritual. Nor was any other 
 course open to them. They could only use the lan- 
 guage and the ideas of their own time. Their words 
 were addressed to their contemporaries, and to be 
 intelligible must adapt themselves to their modes of 
 thought. Just as Joshua could rationally only use the 
 current ideas of his own time as regards the apparent 
 motion of the sun, so the prophets could only use the 
 current ideas of their time in religious matters as the 
 foundation of their discourse, though the superstruc- 
 ture might rise aloft into a higher atmosphere. When 
 sceptics find fault with this principle, they do but ex- 
 pose their own want of judgment. For why should 
 Joshua, for instance, use the language of the nineteenth 
 century rather than that of any other of the many 
 
LIMITS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 267 
 
 centuries which the world may yet last ? For science is 
 of rapid growth, and its language in the present day 
 may seem as deficient in precision, and possibly as 
 false in theory, to the wise of the twentieth century, 
 as that of previous ages seems to scientific men now. 
 And if inspired men were debarred from speaking in 
 accordance with the ideas of their own times, the only 
 language left for them would be that of the last year 
 of the world's duration, and, consequently, their words 
 would be unintelligible to all previous ages. And 
 even then their language would fall short of the truth ; 
 for St. Paul tells us, that when he was caught up into 
 heaven, the things he there heard were apprjra prj/jLara, 
 words which it was impossible to utter because there 
 were no earthly terms capable of conveying notions of 
 heavenly things. The words of earth cannot go be- 
 yond earthly matters. Even for the operations of the 
 mind we are obliged to use terms which originally 
 expressed material objects. And, similarly, in de- 
 scribing spiritual happiness the inspired writers could 
 only draw their images from earthly blessings, nor 
 had they any other means of setting forth the na- 
 ture of the Christian Church than the use of sym- 
 bols taken from the temple worship then existing at 
 Jerusalem. When Christianity came, it brought with 
 it more spiritualized ideas, and the words naturally 
 followed : but the prophets had only Jewish words 
 and ideas, and though they did elevate them and give 
 them a Christian tendency, yet it was possible for 
 them to do so only to a very limited extent. But 
 when we go back to them from Christianity, we must 
 
268 SEEMON IX. ' 
 
 not debase Christian ideas to the Jewish level ; we 
 must not suppose that their full meaning was that 
 simple literal sense in which the people of that time 
 understood them, but must read them by the light of 
 that perfect and final revelation of which they were 
 the heralds and precursors. 
 
 To know what the Prophet himself meant by his 
 words, or what was understood by the people of his 
 time, is useful as the first step to their interpretation, 
 but it is no full gauge or measure of their meaning. 
 Once grant that " God spake in time past unto the 
 fathers by the prophets d ," or that "holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 6 ," and 
 it becomes a very small matter what the Prophet him- 
 self meant, or what the people understood. The ques- 
 tion is, what God meant ? Aud if in after ages He 
 has been pleased to shew what He meant, we may 
 thankfully accept His own explanation. And this 
 elucidates what is meant by the double sense of pro- 
 phecy. The Prophet was often thinking of some 
 minor event, and his words have a true reference to 
 it : but they also pass beyond. It was something 
 local, temporary, transient, which called forth the 
 prophecy, and the Holy Ghost so shaped and moulded 
 it that it would have its real fulfilment in som ethnic; 
 remote, momentous, eternal. The words have a true 
 reference to some occurrence in Jewish or contempo- 
 raneous history ; but a still truer reference to some- 
 thing Christian and spiritual. Not, indeed, always 
 so ; some prophecies seem to have no double meaning ; 
 d Heb. i. 1. • 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
DOUBLE SENSE OF PROPHECY. 269 
 
 and the higher use of these perhaps is to give us some 
 neutral ground on which to test the reality of predic- 
 tion. But all the more important prophecies do look 
 onward to something far beyond the Prophet's own 
 ideas. Were the Bible a common book, I would grant 
 at once that this view is irrational ; in a common 
 book the only question is, what was the author's own 
 meaning ? But if St. Paul spoke the truth when he 
 said that " all Scripture — all Jewish Scripture — was 
 given by inspiration of God," we may reasonably ex- 
 pect to find special elements in what was written 
 under such extraordinary conditions. And though 
 this is a reason why those who are competent for the 
 task should carefully examine into the authenticity 
 and genuineness of the many separate works contained 
 in the Jewish Scriptures, claiming as they do an ele- 
 ment which separates and distinguishes them from 
 all other books whatsoever, except the writings of 
 the New Testament, it certainly camiot be rational to 
 treat them as a common book until this claim has been 
 disproved. Men may take, and very fairly may claim 
 to take, very different views of the nature of inspira- 
 tion : but whatever it may be, — whether much or 
 little, — it so far is a special element, and must have 
 its due consideration. 
 
 The double sense, then, of prophecy means that 
 a prediction might have a passing reference to some 
 inferior event, while essentially, and in its full pur- 
 port, it looked onward to a larger fulfilment. It does 
 not mean that a prophecy can have two equal accom- 
 plishments. It can have but one adequate fulfilment, 
 
270 SERMON IX. 
 
 and in its inner essence can refer only to one event. 
 The Messianic prophecies, for instance, of Isaiah were 
 not fulfilled in Jewish history : several of them started 
 with a reference to some present occurrence, but no 
 commentator has ever yet succeeded in producing any 
 person there, or event, or series of events, to which 
 they can be applied. And in like manner, no prophecy 
 can embrace two parallel events, or two events which 
 stand in no relation to one another. The lower and 
 partial fulfilment is only possible in some fact which 
 itself symbolizes the one main fulfilment. Thus a 
 prophecy might have a temporary reference to Josiah, 
 and a final reference to Messiah, provided that Josiah 
 was, so far as the prophecy required, a type of the 
 Messiah. And so of Jerusalem, and the Jews. Some 
 prophecies belong to them absolutely, just as other 
 prophecies belong to Edom, and Moab, and Tyre ; and 
 these prophecies were fulfilled in their temporal for- 
 tunes literally, — just as the prophecy of Agabus, con- 
 cerning a famine in the days of Claudius Caesar, re- 
 ferred to that famine and nothing else. But Jerusa- 
 lem was also a type or symbol of the Christian Church, 
 and such prophecies as referred to her in her repre- 
 sentative character, though they might spring out of 
 some event in her history, and be partially fulfilled in 
 her temporal fortunes, yet really had their sole, true, 
 and final fulfilment in that perfect dispensation, to 
 which the Jewish dispensation was ancillary. 
 
 But if this is what interpreters mean by the double 
 sense of prophecy, it is something entirely opposed to 
 any such view as would admit of the Prophet's words 
 
CHRISTIANITY PROGRESSIVE. 27 I 
 
 having first a spiritual fulfilment in the righteous lives 
 and pure and holy conversation of Christian people, 
 and then a material one in a millennium of earthly 
 prosperity. Just as Isaiah described the rapid spread 
 and the firm establishment of Christianity under images 
 taken from the temple service, and yet these images 
 refer in their real meaning exclusively to Christian 
 objects, and justify no idea of the restoration of the 
 Jewish polity, or of the Levitical priesthood, and Jew- 
 ish forms of worship, — so his images of earthly pros- 
 perity, of plentiful supplies of gold, of men inhabit- 
 ing houses built by themselves, and eating the fruit of 
 trees of their own planting, of a healthy and numer- 
 ous progeny, of immunity from accidents and dangers, 
 and of human life prolonged till it equalled the dura- 
 tion of trees, all these and the like metaphors really 
 refer to the far higher and purer blessings which 
 Christianity bestows upon those who heartily embrace 
 it. As they were the greatest blessings to which the 
 Jew aspired, so they symbolize the greatest blessings 
 which God bestows in Christ. But the double sense 
 of prophecy is not elastic enough to permit us to sup- 
 pose that after a spiritual fulfilment they will finally 
 culminate in an era totally distinct in its nature from 
 Christianity, and which will at most be only a more 
 perfect repetition of the earthly and carnal sanctions 
 of the Mosaic law, — a retrograde era, which would 
 neither be a fit time for probation, nor an adequate 
 reward. There may be, — there probably is, — a pro- 
 gress in Christendom, a tendency to a purer and 
 holier state. There are thousands of earnest men 
 
272 SERMON IX. 
 
 labouring in this hope; and in proportion as it is 
 realized, and Christian principles obtain a firmer hold 
 over the community, and with them Christian prac- 
 tice, so far the predictions of the Prophet will obtain 
 a completer fulfilment. But it must be separated by- 
 no gulf from the present order of things ; it must be 
 the legitimate development of what we now have. 
 The Christian religion may spread over new realms ; 
 greater success may attend, at home, increasing efforts 
 to bring all members of the community within the in- 
 fluence of the means of grace ; the reaction which ever 
 seems so strangely to disappoint our hopes, the ten- 
 dencies to evil which seem so wonderfully to grow out 
 of and thwart all our plans for good, and the new 
 difficulties which each age makes for itself, may retard 
 less than we should have expected the progress of the 
 work; and so at length the better era may begin. 
 But it can only be in the way of the more complete 
 realization of what we at present have in principle. 
 We have nothing to justify us in expecting a new 
 dispensation, which shall supersede Christianity, but, 
 on the contrary, have every reason to believe that the 
 admonitions and warnings, and threatenings and pro- 
 mises of the New Testament will continue to be ap- 
 plicable to Christian men until the day when our Lord 
 shall appear again for judgment, and probation cease, 
 and faith and hope be swallowed up in certainty. 
 
 It is no part of my present subject to discuss why 
 God has ever from the first permitted so many diffi- 
 culties to stand in the way of His rational creatures 
 during their probation; but inasmuch as this is the 
 
MAN UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND GOD. 273 
 
 method of His providence, and He is all-wise, I am 
 justified in concluding that it is better for mankind 
 that it should so be ; and therefore that this millen- 
 nial scheme, like so many schemes of human benevo- 
 lence, would practically be found an inferior state to 
 that which exists at present, and fraught with greater 
 evils. There are many things which it is good for 
 men to endeavour to do : it is good to try to remove 
 trouble and sorrow, and poverty and sin : all labour 
 is good, and in labouring for unselfish ends men reap 
 a pure and holy reward. But a wise Providence pre- 
 vents the fulfilment of many of our efforts ; in part 
 perhaps we succeed, but fresh evils break forth where 
 least we exj)ected them, and perfection is as far re- 
 moved from us as if we had never laboured at all. 
 
 Hereafter we shall possibly know why this is. At 
 that day when God will be justified in all His words 
 and works, we shall perceive that His wisdom has 
 never failed, and that when in old time the families 
 of the earth were left to the light of nature while the 
 Jew had a special revelation ; or again, when prac- 
 tically a similar state of things exists now; while 
 neither Jew nor Christian have at all adequately acted 
 up to the light given them : — difficult as the problem 
 seems to be, why this prodigal abundance of human 
 life, and this limitation of its greatest blessings, yet 
 doubtless we shall find that it was incompatible neither 
 with the wisdom nor goodness of God. We too often 
 measure God's wisdom by human wisdom ; we see as 
 in a mirror, enigmatically f , so as only to guess at the 
 f 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 T 
 
274 SERMON IX. 
 
 meaning ; and then we imagine that these distorted 
 images are the true representations of heavenly things. 
 When studying the Scriptures we forget that the 
 ideas which we thereby obtain of God, and of His 
 will and works, are necessarily doubly limited ; limited 
 first, by the imperfection of human language, and se- 
 condly by the weakness of the human understanding : 
 and thus we often attach to the words of Scripture 
 notions which do not belong to them. And these may 
 be absolute errors, mistakes as to their meaning, the 
 misunderstanding of what we read ; or they may be 
 simply confused human ideas, right perhaps to some 
 extent, true as far as we are capable of truth, but 
 utterly inadequate as any fitting representation of the 
 realities above. Still, if we keep to the direct teaching 
 of Holy Scripture, however inadequate our views may 
 be in themselves, and however childish they may be 
 compared with the knowledge to which we may attain 
 in a higher state, they are true to us, the truth suitable 
 to our present imperfections, and absolutely sufficient 
 for our use here upon earth, and in proportion to our 
 present powers and necessities; but when we travel 
 beyond Scripture, when we go to it not for practical 
 purposes, but to satisfy a vain curiosity, when we in- 
 dulge in rash speculations as to the cause of our being, 
 and the nature of the Creator's acts, we are seeking 
 an answer to difficulties utterly beyond our range. 
 As well might the inferior creation endeavour to un- 
 derstand the acts of man, as for man to seek to under- 
 stand God. Governed by instincts, they can form no 
 idea of the reason which controls thinking man : and 
 
EIGHT USE OF SCRIPTURE. 275 
 
 we are as far removed from God as they arc from us, 
 and as unable to understand His doings. 
 
 Our reason was given us to guide us in our earthly- 
 course ; and God has seen fit to give light to our 
 reason by means of His inspired Word : but if we use 
 our reason to pry into mysteries which it was never 
 intended to examine, and if we search the Scripture, 
 not for the words of eternal life, but for speculation, 
 the result can only be error. The Bible was given 
 us for our use in the journey of life, and is adapted, 
 therefore, to our present powers, and to the under- 
 standings of the many, and not of the few : it was 
 given for a moral and not for an intellectual purpose, 
 and it is only when used for its rightful purpose that 
 we can hope to be guided by it into truth, and obtain 
 God's blessing upon our use of it. And, in accordance 
 with the general method of God's dealings with us, 
 the evidence for the authenticity and inspiration of 
 God's Word, and that it really is God's Word, is suffi- 
 cient without being overpowering; and, equally, the 
 great truths which it conveys are plain and simple, 
 while nevertheless they can be misunderstood. It is 
 possible both for the frivolous to mistake them, and 
 for the perverse to misapply them. The impious sect 
 of whom I have spoken before, brought forward the 
 Bible itself as a proof of their doctrines, and argued 
 that even in it might be traced the work of that evil 
 principle which had ruined creation. But that there 
 are difficulties in its interpretation, difficulties in its 
 use, difficulties in its evidence, is after all but an in- 
 stance of the great law which prevails in all God's 
 
 T 2 
 
276 SEEM0X IX. 
 
 dealings with mankind, namely, that we have to un- 
 dergo a real probation. We have to make a choice : 
 but it would be only an apparent, and not a real 
 choice, if one of the two sides had no arguments to 
 offer, nothing to address to our reasons. But in 
 making this choice, the balance of "reason and evi- 
 dence inclines to the one side ; and for all practical 
 purposes this is enough. There is proof enough to 
 help our faith, even if faith must really strike its 
 roots in, and draw its nourishment from, another soil. 
 But let not the fact that we have difficulties to face 
 mislead any one into the idea that therefore the truth 
 and certainty of revelation are imperilled; for upon 
 such a supposition, the Manichees of old were justified 
 in asserting that the existence of evil in the world 
 proved that it was not a good God who created it, but 
 a malignant being. Rather we should feel that God 
 intended these difficulties to prove and exercise our 
 faith, that it might grow strong, and be able to remove 
 even mountains from our path, instead of moulder- 
 ing away in a state of things unfitted to exercise and 
 train it. For our calling is not unto ease and se- 
 curity, but to endure hardship as the good soldiers 
 of Jesus Christ ; and the promise to us is, that if we 
 " keep the word of God's patience, He will also keep 
 us from the hour of temptation, which shall come 
 upon all the earth, to try them that dwell upon the 
 earth g ." 
 
 The consideration, then, of this final portion of 
 « Rev. Hi. 10. 
 
CONCLUSIONS. 277 
 
 Isaiah's prophecy has led us to several important con- 
 clusions. For we have seen, in the first place, that 
 the Jewish economy was to be developed into the 
 Christian Church. The two institutions are capable 
 of contrast as existing the one before, and the other 
 after the advent of the Messiah ; but in their essence 
 they are identical, as being the several stages of the 
 Almighty's one revelation to mankind. In the next 
 place we have seen that the Jewish Church is not to 
 be restored. Priests of Aaron's line will never again 
 offer sacrifice at Jewish altars. And the reason of 
 this is stated at length in the arguments used by 
 St. Paul in the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to 
 the Eomans. For he there denies that God cast off 
 the Jewish Church. It never was rejected, but still 
 exists, only in a more glorious form, as it attained 
 to its full perfection in Christ. Its very name proves 
 it ; for we call it the Christian, that is, the Messianic 
 Church, the Church whose Messiah has come ; but as 
 God has given the Messiah not merely the Jews but 
 the Gentiles for His inheritance, and the utmost parts 
 of the earth for His possession, it has become a Church 
 Catholic, universal, and therefore takes its name not 
 from any one people, as if they had exclusive privi- 
 leges now as they had of old, but from Him in whom 
 God has made known the way of salvation to Gentile 
 and Jew alike. As for the Jewish nation, as distinct 
 from the Church, it can only become entitled to a 
 share in God's promises by becoming Christian: for 
 in Christ the promises of God are, yea, and Amen. 
 Its present rejection has been occasioned by its having 
 
278 SERMON IX. 
 
 rejected the Messiah, and thereby withdrawn itself 
 from the Church ; its restoration to God's favour can 
 only be by its acceptance of the Messiah. What bles- 
 sings may await it upon its return we know not : the 
 Jews who never did reject Christ, but from the first 
 were obedient to the faith, were content to be merged 
 in the great body of believers ; for having their affec- 
 tion set upon spiritual blessings, they counted all 
 things beside as dung so that they could win Christ. 
 St. Paul encourages us to believe that the Jews will 
 nationally return to the Church, and says that their 
 conversion will be so great a blessing to the Gentiles 
 as to be like life from the dead : but for it to be so, 
 they must return as a people thirsting after spiritual 
 blessings, and with a heart as ready to give up all to 
 follow Christ, as the apostles and first converts were 
 of old. "We have further seen that the Christian dis- 
 pensation is spiritual, and with spiritual sanctions ; 
 that its object is to train the nobler and better part 
 of man's nature for a higher and heavenly life ; and 
 therefore that it can have no millennium of earthly 
 prosperity. To judge by the past, such a state would 
 be destructive to all godliness; it is in the rough 
 trial of discipline and affliction that men learn to fix 
 their hopes upon a better world. But if God is to 
 interpose by a special providence to prevent this mil- 
 lennial period having its natural effect in corrupting 
 every better principle of our nature, such a special 
 intervention is contrary to all His previous dealings 
 with mankind, and violates our free-will. And this 
 it does to establish a state of things which is neither 
 
CRUSHING OF THE GRAPE. 279 
 
 earth nor heaven ; which would neither train men for 
 a future world, nor be the reward promised by Christ 
 to those who keep the word of His patience. 
 
 But before I conclude this series of discourses, it is 
 incumbent upon me briefly to examine several passages, 
 especially in the last two chapters of this prophecy, 
 which corroborate the conclusions just mentioned. 
 
 In the eighth verse, then, of the sixty-fifth chapter, 
 we find the Jewish nation compared to a cluster of 
 grapes, in which is the new wine. Now how is the 
 new wine obtained from the grape ? By crushing it, 
 and letting it ferment, by which a separation takes 
 place, and the wine is then drawn off, and carefully 
 stored away, while the lees are rejected. So then the 
 Jewish nation was broken up, and rent in pieces at 
 the coming of Christ, and a fermentation took place 
 in men's minds, and some received Him for their 
 Saviour, and others rejected Him, and house was di- 
 vided against house, and father against child; and 
 gradually the two elements stood farther and farther 
 apart, till finally the armies of Eome scattered the 
 unbelieving portion of the nation, while the believing 
 portion became the apostles, and bishops, and chiefs 
 of the Christian Church. 
 
 And this is exactly what the Prophet foretells. 
 There is to be a destruction of the cluster, but not an 
 utter one. There is " a blessing in it;" there is in 
 the Jewish nation that which will be the regeneration 
 of the world; and this blessing, this new wine, will 
 therefore escape the destruction which overtakes the 
 
2 50 SERMON IX. 
 
 rest: — "So will I do for My servants' sakes, that I 
 may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a 
 seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of 
 My mountain." The cluster of grapes shall be crushed, 
 but God will not " destroy all :" the wine will remain ; 
 a seed shall be delivered, and from that seed shall 
 spring the noble harvest of the Christian Church. 
 
 In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth verses, 
 the believing and unbelieving portions of the nation 
 are sharply contrasted: " Behold, my servants shall 
 eat, but ye shall be hungry : behold, my servants shall 
 drink, but ye shall be thirsty : behold, my servants 
 shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed : behold, my 
 servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for 
 sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 
 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my 
 chosen : for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His 
 people by another name." I will not dwell upon this 
 contrast ; the passage is too plain to be misunderstood : 
 I will only call attention to the explicit declarations 
 of the fifteenth verse, where we read that the very 
 name of Jew shall become a curse, and that God will 
 slay them, and that His Church shall be called no 
 longer by their name. And the event has answered 
 to the prediction, and the Church does bear " a new 
 name, and not its name of old. For after the mani- 
 festation of our Master, Christ, the believers were 
 called Christians. And this name, instead of being 
 a curse, is used by men as a general term of praise. 
 For when they would extol any one, they conclude 4 
 their encomiums by calling him a real Christian; and 
 
THE CHURCH HAS NO TEMPLE. 201 
 
 if they would encourage any one, they bid him act as 
 a Christian — do what becomes a Christian. And thus 
 is it a title full of praise and commendation 11 ." 
 
 These prophecies, however, are still general ; but in 
 the sixty-ninth chapter we find three special charac- 
 teristics of the new dispensation. It is to have no 
 temple, no sacrifices, and no lineal priesthood. Of the 
 first we read, — " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven 
 is My throne, and the earth is My footstool : where 
 is the house that ye build unto Me? And where is 
 the place of My rest ?" I am aware that some of 
 the "higher critics" assume that these words refer to 
 a purpose of the exiles to build a temple at Babylon ; 
 but such an idea is destitute of all historical founda- 
 tion. It is, in fact, most improbable, that these words 
 could have been written during the exile ; for the 
 people then were encouraged, rather than the contrary, 
 to cherish the idea of returning to their land, and re- 
 building their ruined house of God. And equally un- 
 likely is it that any prophet would so have spoken 
 subsequently to the return from exile, when Ezra and 
 Nehemiah, and the prophets of their days, were urg- 
 ing the peoj)le to the vigorous prosecution of the work ; 
 for it would have been putting a stumbling-block in 
 the believer's way. The temple had a place and pur- 
 pose in the Jewish economy, just as churches have 
 a place and purpose now ; and it was a pious and holy 
 duty in the exiles, upon their return, to restore the 
 public worship of God. Nor was it aught but a right 
 feeling in the Jews which led them to venerate the 
 
 "' Theodorcli Interp. in Es. lxv. 15. 
 
282 SERMON IX. 
 
 temple, and made them ready to sacrifice wealth and 
 comfort, in the earnest wish once again to serve their 
 God according to the rites of their holy law. In tem- 
 poral matters they were probably far more prosper- 
 ous at Babylon than they could ever hope to be in 
 Judaea. It was a rich and populous country, fit for 
 trade and agriculture, and they had powerful friends 
 there, such as Daniel, and subsequently Nehemiah; 
 most of the people, too, had been transplanted from 
 distant homes, like themselves : but a right and noble 
 feeling made the better portion of them content to 
 abandon everything for their religion's sake. Neither 
 then at Babylon, nor after the return, could a prophet 
 have rightly blamed so praiseworthy a motive. But 
 in Hezekiah's reign there was too good reason for the 
 rebuke. An idolatrous spirit had possession of the 
 people, and the reproofs addressed in the first chapter 
 to those who trode God's courts, prove that they were 
 no true worshippers, but came attributing some in- 
 trinsic merit to the place as distinct from the faith of 
 the worshipper, — in the spirit, therefore, of idolatry, 
 and not as men offering unto God a reasonable service. 
 They prized, doubtless, its splendour and magnifi- 
 cence, and in the troubles which befel the land hoped 
 to obtain deliverance by^oining in its services. But 
 they did not purpose to put away the evil of their 
 doings from before God's eyes ; they did not cease to 
 do evil, and learn to do well. They came, there- 
 fore, as heathens might have gone to the magnificent 
 spectacles of their religion, to please the Deity by an 
 outward show, and not to worship in spirit and in 
 
THE CHURCH HAS NO SACRIFICES. 283 
 
 truth. And therefore the rebuke ; and therefore, also, 
 in these last chapters, the exposition of the true prin- 
 ciples of all real religion, spoken in terms singularly 
 in accordance with the words of the New Testa- 
 ment, where the Lord tells us that "the hour was 
 coming when neither on Gerizim nor yet at Jerusalem 
 should men offer any especial worship to the Father. 
 .... For the hour cometh, and now is, when the true 
 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
 truth." And, similarly, in describing the new Jeru- 
 salem, that is, the Christian Church, St. John says, — 
 " I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Al- 
 mighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." And, 
 as if to point to the fulfilment therein of Isaiah's pro- 
 phecy, he proceeds in his very words, — "And the city 
 had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine 
 in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
 Lamb is the light thereof 1 ." And as the New Testa- 
 ment thus reiterates the lessons of the Old, so does 
 Isaiah speak in terms which seem to have caught their 
 inspiration from the Gospel ; for while God thus re- 
 jects a house built by human hands, He claims man's 
 heart for His abode : "I will look," He says, " to the 
 man who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who 
 trembleth at My word." 
 
 In the Christian Church, therefore, there is no tem- 
 ple : and in the next place, sacrifices are abolished in 
 terms not merely express, but contemptuous. "He 
 that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man ; he that sa- 
 criflceth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that 
 
 1 Rct. xxi. 22, 23; Isa. lx. 19. 
 
284 SERMON IX. 
 
 offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood ; he 
 that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol." Words 
 could not more decisively reject the whole Mosaic ritual; 
 and yet their effect is very much lessened by the num- 
 ber of expletives inserted by our translators. Omit 
 them, and we seem to see the Prophet turning away 
 in undisguised abhorrence from the mention of every 
 temple offering. So that, plainly, the whole element of 
 Judaism is to be expunged from Christianity, and its 
 worship is to be modelled upon entirely different prin- 
 ciples from those which were embodied in the Levit- 
 ical service. 
 
 Upon this abolition of sacrifice follows immediately 
 the rapid spread of the Christian faith : "A nation is 
 born at once ;" " as soon as Zion travailed, she hath 
 brought forth children;" "peace comes to her like 
 a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing 
 stream : they suck, they are borne upon her sides, and 
 dandled upon her knees." In old time there had never 
 been but a very small remnant who understood the 
 law spiritually ; there were probably in all ages but 
 very few who would not have regarded with indig- 
 nation Isaiah's rejection of sacrifices, or have thought 
 the prophets right in preferring the moral to the 
 ceremonial part of the law. But, in Christianity, 
 a spiritual religion was revealed, and purity and holi- 
 ness required of all, as graces without which no man 
 shall see the Lord; and at the first summons of the 
 Apostles the world awakened to the call, and far 
 and wide both Jew and Gentile gathered round them, 
 and were content to give up all that they might 
 follow Christ. 
 
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CHURCH. 285 
 
 But while thus a Christian nation is born as in 
 a day, it is not without painful throes to the Church of 
 old. For a separation has to be made between her 
 false children, and her true : and this is not accom- 
 plished but with pain and fiery trial. "Behold," says 
 the Prophet, " Jehovah comes with fire, and with His 
 chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with 
 fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire, 
 and by His sword, will Jehovah plead with all flesh : 
 and Jehovah's slain shall be many." 
 
 But while the Jewish nation is thus tried and 
 separated, and the great mass of the people, "Jeho- 
 vah's slain," rejected from His covenant, others, like 
 the Apostles, gather into the Church no longer Jews 
 only, but people "of all nations and tongues, who 
 come and see God's glory ;" not, now, in a splendid 
 ritual and majestic temple, but in the Gospel covenant 
 of grace. It is expressly said that this ingathering 
 is the work of " those that escape of them ;" of those 
 Jews who, when God visited their nation, were among 
 the believing few, and not the unbelieving many ; of 
 that Church which, when the Eoman armies girt the 
 city, withdrew to the mountains. It was not the work 
 of the Jews nationally, but of those whom the Jews 
 cast out of their synagogues. And these, the Apostles 
 and Evangelists of the Lord, "bring their brethren 
 for an offering unto Jehovah out of all nations, upon 
 horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, 
 and upon swift beasts, to God's holy mountain Jeru- 
 salem." It is the picture of a countless host, such 
 as no man can number, brought unto Christ, not in 
 
286 SERMON IX. 
 
 a literal pilgrimage to Jerusalem — the Prophet's meta- 
 phors are not to be literally understood — but won by 
 every moral means, by all those graces by which the 
 Apostles "approved themselves as the ministers of 
 God ;" and by the labours, and forbearance, and love 
 unfeigned, of Christian men now. 
 
 And the Prophet, upon this, declares the third great 
 specific difference between the two dispensations. The 
 priesthood is no longer to be confined to the line of 
 Aaron : — " I will take of them," of the converts gene- 
 rally, " for priests and for levites, saith Jehovah." I 
 need scarcely say that the abolition of these three 
 things — the temple, the sacrifice, the Aaronic priest — 
 mark essential distinctions between the Church of old 
 and the Church now. They teach us that a spiritual 
 religion has been substituted in the place of one mate- 
 rial and earthly. It is no longer a symbolical worship, 
 it is one addressed to the hearts and consciences of 
 men ; whose High-Priest is not so by virtue of descent 
 from any earthly lineage, but " without father, without 
 mother, without descent, haviug neither beginning of 
 days, nor end of life, but Himself the Son of God, 
 abideth a priest continually." I need not enlarge 
 upon these distinctions; it does not belong to my 
 subject : I bring them forward only as proofs that 
 the Judaic element in the Church was absolutely 
 to pass away. 
 
 Thus founded upon better promises, and carnal no 
 longer, but spiritual, the Church is to last for ever, 
 and in it there shall always be the seed of true be- 
 lievers. "As the new heavens, and the new earth, 
 
CONCLUSION. 287 
 
 which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith 
 Jehovah ; so shall your seed, and your name remain." 
 There shall always be in the Church, God's new 
 heaven and earth, a chosen people : it shall not have 
 a name merely to live, but shall ever bring forth chil- 
 dren for God's honour and service : and to them shall 
 that name belong which Moses of old promised to the 
 Israelites of his time as their distinguishing glory, if 
 they would keep God's covenant, and which St. Peter 
 claims for Christians; " Ye shall be unto Me a king- 
 dom of priests, a holy nation V 
 
 The two verses which remain describe, the one the 
 spiritual worship of Jehovah, though under figures 
 drawn from the Mosaic ritual ; the other, the great 
 vengeance of God ivpon Jerusalem, passing onwards, 
 as in our Lord's last discourse, to the final judgment. 
 And thus has the Prophet sketched all the great 
 features of the Christian Church; its pure and holy 
 worship, its spiritual sanctions, its heavenly hopes : 
 and fittingly does such a description come from him 
 whose especial office it was to set before God's people 
 of old the true image of their Messiah, coming not in 
 earthly splendour and the pomp of war, but in meek 
 and lowly guise, to suffer and die for men's sins. To 
 the Jews both were hard lessons : they are hard les- 
 sons still. For the pride of man revolts from the doc- 
 trine of an atonement wrought upon a Cross, and his 
 earthly nature can only be enabled by God's Holy 
 Spirit to prize the spiritual sanctions of the Gospel 
 more than that material organization necessary for the 
 k Exorl. xix. 6. 
 
288 SEEMOX IX. 
 
 Church's usefulness and existence here. But the les- 
 sons given to the Jew speak even more plainly to the 
 Christian, and while we value and make use of every 
 help given us to assist our feeble natures, let our 
 higher aim be to worship God " in spirit and in truth : 
 for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." 
 
NOTES. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Page 3, line 18. — Most of these sermons were written 
 before the publication of " Essays and Reviews :" and as 
 the)'- refer to Jewish and German criticism, rather than to 
 anything in this country, I am spared the necessity of re- 
 ferring to the objections stated there against the usual inter- 
 pretation of the prophecies. As, however, these objections 
 are gathered from German writers, it will be found that most 
 of them are treated of in these pages. I must, however, ex- 
 press my regret that in Dr. Williams's Essay I do not find 
 that carefulness of statement which we have a right to expect 
 in one whose knowledge and ability are undoubted. Not to 
 mention his inexact translation of Isaiah ix. 6, we find him 
 asserting, (p. 76,) that symphonia and psanterion are both 
 Macedonian words, and his footnote would make it appear as 
 if he rested this assertion upon the authority of Bunsen. 
 Now the subject is one so hackneyed among the Germans, 
 that it would seem impossible for any one acquainted with 
 their literature to fall into any mistake about it ; and yet 
 there are no grounds whatsoever for half the statement. The 
 sole place in which the symphonia is mentioned is an extract 
 from Polybius, preserved in the " Deipnosophists" of Athe- 
 nseus, and which simply mentions that this musical instru- 
 ment was in use at the court of Antiochus Epiphanes. It is 
 the psanterin, concerning which Gesenius throws out the 
 conjecture, that the change of the n for /, psanterin for 
 psalterion, (Dr. Williams's word being neither Greek nor 
 Chaldee,) may have come from the Macedonians, who, as he 
 candidly remarks, shared this peculiarity of interchanging / 
 and n with the whole Dorian race. But the possibility of 
 the name of one of these instruments having been introduced 
 by the Dorians is a very different thing from affirming that 
 
 u 
 
oqo NOTES. 
 
 they were both of Macedonian origin. The Dorian race had 
 too long been mixed up with the affairs of Asia for any one 
 to have a right to be surprised at finding a Dorian instru- 
 ment of music in use there. These "high critics" even tell 
 us that the body-guard of David was partly composed of 
 Dorian mercenaries, and yet it seems that the occurrence of 
 a form common to the Macedonians with the Dorian race 
 generally is a proof that the book in which it is found was 
 written after Alexander's conquests ! Further, the conjecture 
 of Gesenius is itself destitute of foundation : for the merest 
 tyro in Chaldee knows that that dialect constantly inter- 
 changes I and n. Even those ignorant of the language are 
 aware that the Labynetus of Herodotus is the Nabonedus 
 of Berosus : and Gesenius himself in his Thesaurus, under 
 Lamed, in discussing this law quotes psanterin among nu- 
 merous other instances of its prevalence. Man} r philologists, 
 moreover, assert that tyaXkw with its derivatives is of Se- 
 mitic, and not of Arian origin ; but even if we reject this, 
 we are not at liberty to deny the early existence of a very 
 considerable trade between Greece and Asia, and with it 
 the interchange of numerous words. From the Semitic race 
 Greece even learnt her letters; and if the most ordinary 
 articles of clothing have the same name among both races, 
 what wonder is it if the merchandize with which they sup- 
 plied one another carried its own name with it into very dis- 
 tant regions. Even war, when introducing new things, in- 
 troduces their names with them : and these names have a 
 wonderful vitality. Few of us now pass a day without 
 making use of Arabic words brought home, with the articles 
 they signify, by the Crusaders. In short, the goods imported 
 into Asia would carry their names with them : and there is, 
 therefore, no period so ancient as that the occurrence in the 
 Bible of a word possibly of Greek origin need astonish us, 
 provided it was the name of an article not of Syriac manu- 
 facture, but imported from Greece. As for the symphony, 
 Dr. "Williams, as a competent Hebrew scholar, ought to have 
 been aware that all the best authorities in Germany since 
 the time of Gesenius have confessed its Semitic origin, and 
 
SERMON I. 2Q 1 
 
 that the JPtib, the written text, is right in spelling it 
 TVpP, aiphonia, which the Greeks, who learnt the name of 
 the instrument from the Phoenicians, corrupted into a word 
 which conveyed a meaning to their ear. To imagine any 
 sensible man calling a single instrument a 'concert,' and 
 that instrument a dudelsaek, a 'bagpipe/ is absurd. Fiirst, 
 however, Handw&rterbucA, ii. 74, concludes that the word "is 
 probably of Semitic origin a ;" but Meier, who discusses the 
 matter with greater fulness, and whose treatise on the foreign 
 words in the Bible I would recommend to Dr. Williams' 
 notice, and who, as being one of the most advanced of the 
 Tiibingen school, has certainly no leanings towards ortho- 
 doxy, has no doubt upon the matter : — " The word is un- 
 doubtedly Semitic 13 ." And yet we are to believe that these 
 names, 'symphony' and 'psanterin,' are of Macedonian origin ! 
 Again, Dr. Williams affirms that the occurrence of such 
 late forms as fab, )% and )htt, proves that the Chaldee of 
 the book of Daniel must be several centuries later than that 
 of the book of Ezra. Now it is a curious fact that there is 
 no such word as ft at all: it is a creation of the gram- 
 marians, like the tip, tas, anti of Sanscrit grammar, and 
 the Tityw of our own school days. To the grammarian, 
 however, it represents the simple form of the Chaldee word 
 Ha?, ' this,' which is emphatic : and as, for some unknown 
 reason, the simple B never occurs, the grammarian invents 
 it by the rules of analogy to round off his system. Dis- 
 missing, then, this fictitious word 0, I find in Gesenius' 
 Thesaurus an enumeration of thirty places in which TVfl 
 occurs : of these, fifteen are in Daniel, fourteen in Ezra, and 
 one in Jeremiah (x. 11). It follows, therefore, that 7121 is no 
 late form ; the late form really is VH, a word of constant 
 occurrence in the Targums : and one cannot help having an 
 uneasy suspicion that Dr. Williams took H for a plural, 
 as he thrusts it between two plurals, and treats it as if it 
 were an exactly parallel case with them. It is much the 
 same as if in Latin any one were to treat illis, is, and his, as 
 
 a " Es mag viell. semitisch sein." 
 b " Das Wort ist sicher semitisch." — Wurzelworlerbuch, p. 719. 
 
 u2 
 
292 NOTES. 
 
 three datives plural. I may add that Bunsen, whom Dr. 
 Williams is reviewing, is not answerable for the assertion. 
 
 As regards the other two instances, it is true that Daniel's 
 form of the pronominal plural is Chaldaic, while Ezra ad- 
 heres more closely to the Hebraic dialect. Which is the 
 older form I am not prepared to say. But this difference 
 between the two writers is a fact of little moment. Fixity 
 of spelling is a modern practice, the result of our constant 
 use of printed books. In the mingled mass of people who 
 dwelt at Babylon there can be little doubt that considerable 
 dialectic variations existed contemporaneously : and what 
 wonder if the Jewish scribes who drew up the decrees 
 which Ezra records used the Hebraic form, while Daniel, 
 trained in the Chaldee from his youth, followed the native 
 manner of speaking. The interchange of m and n is a 
 very trifling matter : for, as Gesenius in his Thesaurus re- 
 marks, " Of the liquids, m is most frequently interchanged 
 with n ; and as being the harsher letter is constantly softened 
 into n, both at the beginning, the middle, and the end of 
 a word." Finally, there is no proof that the plural end- 
 ing in n is more recent than that in m; such assertions 
 are but the inductions of grammarians founded upon a 
 very narrow collection of facts. A wider knowledge dispels 
 these assumptions. In one of these dialects we find both 
 forms existing side by side to this day : for we read that 
 "the Samaritan language forms the plural of masculine 
 nouns by adding im to the singular, but this is constantly 
 changed for in, in accordance with the Chaldee and Syriac 
 use c ." This assertion I have had brought under my own 
 notice in the case of a very ancient manuscript of the Sa- 
 maritan Targum. And, in short, I believe that the relation 
 of these two forms of the plural to one another is not chrono- 
 logical, but dialectic ; that both existed simultaneously, but 
 in different branches of the Semitic race. 
 
 Page 7, line 21. — Amongst the recent acquisitions of the 
 Bodleian is the Hebrew Lexicon of Abraham ben David, a 
 
 c Uhlemann, Instit. Ling. Sam., p. 104. 
 
SERMON I. 293 
 
 work of great antiquity, being considerably older than the 
 Lexicon of Jonah ben Gannach, hitherto the most ancient 
 known. Its author apparently is only aware of the existence 
 of three vowels ; a fact in most curious contrast with the 
 extreme intricacy of the Masoretic system, which endeavours 
 to represent the sound not of the separate words, but of words 
 combined into sentences, and pronounced with a rising in- 
 flexion at the end. I need scarcely say that such a system 
 could only have been invented after Hebrew had ceased to 
 be a living language : but without it the Hebrew Scriptures 
 would have been scarcely intelligible ; and though its au- 
 thority is not final, it nevertheless deservedly ranks very 
 high, yet not so as to exclude the more ancient rendering 
 of the Septuagint. An account of this Lexicon will, I trust, 
 shortly appear in the Journal Asiatique. 
 
 Page 8, line 7. — The oldest Nizzaehon known is supposed, 
 from internal evidence, to be of the date of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, and is printed entire in Wagenseil's Ignea Tela Satance. 
 Its argument is as follows : — " Almali signifies a young 
 woman, and is the wife of Isaiah : in due time she is to bear 
 a son, whose name Imraanuel is a promise that God shall be 
 with our arms to deliver us from Pekah and Rezin. His 
 birth shall be followed by the immediate return of prosperity 
 to our land, so that he shall eat butter and honey : and before 
 he shall be old enough to distinguish between good and evil, 
 ruin shall have overtaken both the confederate kings. The bet- 
 ter to assure them of this deliverance, the child is also called 
 Maher-shalal-hash-baz, i. e. ' haste to the spoil, speed to the 
 prey ;' which name is plainly a warlike encouragement. And 
 by the words used of him, ' Before the child shall have 
 knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of 
 Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away 
 before the King of Assyria,' the sense is fixed of the similar 
 words applied to the Immanuel, and the identity established 
 between him and Mahershalal. As the Prophet's other son, 
 Shear-jashub, also bore a significant name, the Prophet says, 
 ' Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are 
 
294 NOTES. 
 
 for signs/ &c." In the ninth chapter, however, the Nizzachon 
 considers that " Hezekiah was the child meant, and that the 
 prophecy was fulfilled in the defeat of Sennacherib." The 
 title of Nizzachon is also applied to Josef Kimchi's " "Wars of 
 the Lord ;" and other instances will be found in "Wolff's Bib- 
 liotheca Heb., vol. i., under Lipman and Matathias ; and vol. 
 iii. p. 661. 
 
 Page 8, line 10. — The great Jewish controversial work, 
 Chissuk Emuna, or " The Pillar of the Truth," was written 
 by Rabbi Isak ben Abraham, and printed for private circula- 
 tion after his death, by his disciple Josef ben Mardochai 
 Troki, about 1681. Its existence was long carefully con- 
 cealed, but at length it fell into "Wagenseirs bands in the 
 following way. He was travelling in Spain as tutor to 
 Count Abensberg, when in an excursion from Gibraltar to 
 Ceuta, he found large numbers of Jews assembled there from 
 all parts of Africa, at a fair. Mixing freely with them, he 
 so won their gratitude by the information he was able to 
 give them concerning their compatriots in Europe, that they 
 not only answered his questions about their condition in 
 Africa, but finally gave him a manuscript copy of the Chissuk 
 Emuna, as the choicest present in their power. Subsequently 
 he heard that the Portuguese Jews possessed a Spanish trans- 
 lation of it made by one Rabbi Gabriel, but was unable, after 
 many exertions, to obtain a copy. Upon his return home, 
 he published it in his Ignea Tela Satance, in 1705. Since 
 that time it has frequently been reprinted by the Jews, 
 the last edition which I have seen being Leipzig, 1857. 
 
 The preface written by Isak's disciple, to whom he had 
 given the book upon his dying bed, affords an apt illustration 
 of the frigid humour of the Jews. For he compares his 
 master to his namesake the patriarch Isaac, and saj 7 s that, 
 like him, the Rabbi had two sons, the one, the gentle Jacob, 
 being that part of the work which defends the Jews, while 
 the other, the fierce Esau, is the second part, in which the 
 New Testament is attacked and Christianity impugned. Of 
 himself Isak says, " "When I was young, I was much about 
 
SERMON I. 29^ 
 
 the person of princes and men of rank, and often heard their 
 inconclusive reasonings. . . . And during all my life, though 
 of humble station, I have often argued with bishops, dukes, 
 nobles, men of high and men of low rank, and have always 
 been listened to with civility, because I spake modestly, and 
 used for my proofs the words of the law. And this has in- 
 duced me in my retirement to put together the chief argu- 
 ments which I have used in old time, that they may still be 
 useful to the Jewish cause." 
 
 The general character of his reasonings may be gathered 
 from the following specimens. In the first section of the 
 first part, or " The Apology for the Law," he objects that 
 the argument from prophecy is inconclusive in four par- 
 ticulars : — 1. As regards our Lord's genealogy, nothing being 
 known of Mary, an obscure virgin, and Joseph being con- 
 fessedly not His father : even Joseph's genealogy, he adds, 
 is most uncertain, the two Christian witnesses, Matthew and 
 Luke, not agreeing. 2. As to His work : for Zechariah, ix. 
 10, foretells, " He shall speak peace unto the nations," whereas 
 Jesus says, " Think not that I am come to establish peace 
 upon earth ;" Mai. iv. 6, " He shall turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children," but Jesus says that " He came to 
 set a man at variance with his father;" Psalm lxxii. 11, 
 " Kings shall fall down before Him," but Jesus " came not 
 to be served, but to serve." 3. The time. Messiah's birth 
 is to be " in the last days," (Isa. ii. 2 ; Hos. iii. 5) ; during 
 the wars of Gog and Magog, (Ezek. xxxviii. 8) ; neither of 
 which were true of "the Nazarene." 4. Unfulfilled pro- 
 phecies, such, for instance, as that Messiah will establish 
 one kingdom, (Dan. ii. 44,) in which the Jewish law shall 
 prevail, (Isa. Iii. 1,) and the Mosaic feasts be observed, 
 (Zech. xiv. 16). The Jews shall everywhere be venerated, 
 (lb. viii. 23) ; all idolatry shall cease, (lb. xiii. 2) ; and the 
 Jews especially serve God without sin, (Deut. xxx. 6 ; Zeph. 
 iii. 13) : universal peace shall follow the destruction of Gog 
 and Magog, (Ezek. xxxix. 9) ; beasts of prey even shall 
 change their nature, (Hos. ii. 18 ; Isa. xi. 6) ; grief shall 
 cease, (lb. lxv. 16, 19) ; the Israelites shall possess the gift 
 
296 NOTES. 
 
 of prophecy, (Ezek. xxxvii. 26 — 28 ; Joel ii. 28) ; and God 
 shall dwell among them, (Joel iii. 17), 
 
 In his sixth chapter Isak enumerates many more unful- 
 filled prophecies, such as the cleaving of the Mount of Olives ; 
 the bursting forth of two rivers from the sanctuary, with 
 trees upon their banks bearing fruit every month ; the dry- 
 ing up of the Red Sea, and the Euphrates ; the annual visit 
 of all men to Jerusalem ; the universal empire of the Jews, 
 (Isa. xlix. 23) ; the general observance of their religious rites, 
 the reunion of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and the 
 redivision of Palestine among the twelve tribes. He also 
 argues, that in the vision of the image in Dan. ii. the miry 
 clay is the Mahommedan empire, and that consequently it 
 must be fused with the Roman before Messiah can come. 
 
 The largest portion, however, of the work is taken up with 
 the examination of the texts usually brought forward by 
 Christians in controversy with the Jews, and the study of his 
 answers would be of great use to any one who really wished 
 to know the grounds upon which the Jews rest their defence. 
 He argues in it that the law can give life, for the observance 
 of its precepts is meritorious, and the breach of them can be 
 atoned for by repentance. Its sanctions he affirms to have 
 been spiritual, and not temporal only. He asks, On what 
 grounds Christians keep some of its precepts, and reject 
 others ? Among those observed he mentions the forbidding 
 to marry within the prohibited degrees, of which he enume- 
 rates six, viz., mother, step-mother, sister, niece, daughter, 
 and step-daughter. The 53rd chapter of Isaiah he examines 
 very elaborately, and argues that Israel is the Servant of Je- 
 hovah, and that its sufferings in its present Edomitish cap- 
 tivity are vicarious, not being the punishment of its own 
 sins, but for the healing of the Gentiles. The utter rejection 
 of Israel, asserted by Christians from Jer. xvii. 4, &c," is an 
 impossibility, for God's threatenings, equally with His pro- 
 mises, are conditional ; and besides, Israel has equally abso- 
 lute promises of a restoration, and of becoming the universal 
 religion. 
 
 Isak further comments upon the alleged misuse by Chris- 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 297 
 
 tians of the prophecies. Thus Rachel's weeping for Ephraim 
 carried into captivity at the deportation of the ten tribes is 
 applied to the slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem, 
 which was in Judah, and therefore its inhabitants were not 
 children of Rachel, but of Leah. Zechariah, the son of 
 Barachiah, (Zech. i. 1, 7,) is confounded with the son of Je- 
 hoiada, and Abiathar put for Ahimelech. Stephen's speech, 
 again, he says is replete with errors, while Paul's mis- 
 quotations of Scripture are especially numerous. 
 
 Nor are Christians more fair to their own books ; for they 
 have added to the New Testament doctrines which it does 
 not contain, as (1) the Trinity, (2) the divinity of the Son, 
 (3) the worship of images, and (4) the duty of hating Jews : 
 while they neglect what it does teach, as (1) the selling of 
 their goods to give to the poor, (2) loving their enemies, 
 (3) the refraining from things strangled. 
 
 One instance of his constructive method may suffice, viz., 
 his interpretation of Zech. xi. in opposition to Matt, xxvii. 9. 
 The staff Beauty, he says, is Zerubbabel, and Bands the 
 Maccabees, who had no right to the throne, but did feed the 
 flock. The three shepherds cut off in one month are Haggai, 
 Zechariah, and Malachi, who died within a few days of one 
 another. The thirty pieces of silver are the thirty just men, 
 who flourished after Nehemiah, and who are put into the 
 treasury. [He reads, therefore, "i-IS for ~)2T\] Herod, who 
 is the foolish shepherd, destroys the staff Bands, while 
 Agrippa, the idle shepherd, leaves his flock to go to Rome, 
 and so brings upon his nation the invasion of Titus. Like, 
 however, most controversialists, Rabbi Isak is more successful 
 in stating objections speciously, and finding difficulties, than 
 in constructing a system for himself. 
 
 Page 8, line 24. — Isak's exposition of the sixty-five years 
 is rendered impossible by the word T^?, ' in yet sixty-five 
 years,' ' in sixty-five years from this time.' The received 
 explanation is that given by Archbishop Usher, who con- 
 siders that the prophecy was not fulfilled entirely at the 
 deportation of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, but at the in- 
 
298 NOTES. 
 
 troduction of new inhabitants by Esarhaddon, when the land 
 altogether ceased to belong to Israel. Grotius would read 
 six for sixty, " within six and five years," i. e. within eleven 
 years ; and adds, " At Hebroei, ut codicum suorura fidem 
 tueantur, hos lxv. annos retro trahunt ad id tempus, quo 
 Amosus contra Syriam et Israelitas vaticinari coepit." 
 
 Page 12, line 15. — Rabbi Isak does not stand alone in con- 
 sidering that Messiah will die ; for Mairaonides, Porta Mosis, 
 p. 159, says, " Messiah shall die, and after him shall reign 
 his son, and his grandsons ; for in Isa. xlii. 4 God shews that 
 his death is to follow his victory." Nor are the Jews con- 
 tent with this, but have busied themselves with calculating 
 the years of his life. R. Eliezer argues that he will die 
 aged 40, from Ps. xcv. 10 ; but Ribbi concludes, from Ps. 
 lxxii. 5, that he will live at least three generations. Other 
 calculations are not so moderate, for R. Abimas calculates 
 that the Messiah will reign seven thousand years; for in 
 Isaiah lxii. 5 it is written, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth 
 over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee :" but 
 a bridegroom rejoices for seven days, and a day of God is 
 a thousand years. Numerous other calculations will be 
 found in Genebrardi, Hebr. Breve Chron., p. 83, ed. 1572. 
 
 Page 12, line 16. — The Jews argue that Messiah shall have 
 children from Isa. liii. 10 and Ps. lxxxix. 29 ; but in their 
 uncontroversial works they constantly explain the term seed 
 as we do metaphorically of disciples. So in the Bereshith 
 Rabba, on Eccles. xi. 6, " In the morning sow thy seed, and 
 in the evening withhold not thy hand," R. Akiba says that 
 it is a command to make disciples both in our youth and 
 our old age : " for thou knowest not which God will account 
 to thee, or whether both alike may be good." 
 
 Page 14, line 30. — Besides the shifting of ground in the 
 same commentator in making Isa. vii. 14 refer to one person, 
 and ch. ix. 6 to another, the variations of interpreters in ex- 
 plaining the former text alone are instructive : thus Trypho 
 
SERMON I. 299 
 
 says that the Almah is the mother of Hezekiah ; Abravanel 
 that she was either the wife or the daughter of Ahaz ; Rabbi 
 Lusitanus, Bauer, Isenbiehl, &c, a maiden pointed out by 
 Isaiah ; Abenezra, It. Isak, &c, Isaiah's wife ; Hitzig, Isaiah's 
 first wife, Shear- jashub's mother; Gesenius, Isaiah's second 
 wife, married upon the death of the first; David Kimchi 
 and Salomon Jarchi, Isaiah's wife, but at the time of the 
 prophecy still a virgin unripe for marriage ; Eichhorn, an 
 ideal virgin ; Meier, the city of Jerusalem. Bunsen's view 
 is perhaps worth even quoting at length. " The Almah," 
 he says, "is any young marriageable woman, and here, 
 Isaiah's betrothed. His eldest son was Shear-jashub, his 
 second Immanuel, his third, Mahershalal. The essence of 
 the prediction consisted in the birth of a boy, and not of 
 a girl d !" 
 
 Page 15, line 2. — The idea of the text having been cor- 
 rupted by Jerome was first started by Salomon Jarchi, who 
 makes the first six names refer to God, and the last two to 
 Hezekiah. Besides the absurdity of this supposition, we 
 have, e contra, — 
 
 1. The Chaldee paraphrase, which is as follows: — "The 
 prophet said to the house of David, Because a babe is born 
 for us, a child is given us, and He hath taken the law 
 upon Him to keep it, and His name shall be called from 
 of old Wonderful in Counsel, God-man, Existing for Eter- 
 nity, Messiah, whose peace shall be multiplied upon us in 
 His days." 
 
 It will be noticed that the paraphrast renders the words 
 "ii23 b« verbatim by the corresponding Chaldee words Nrns 
 snaa, but the latter word, like vir among the Latins, had 
 come to signify man merely, having lost its original mean- 
 ing of strength. 
 
 2. The Peschito, or Syriac version, which was made directly 
 from the Hebrew without the help of the Septuagint, and 
 renders, — " Because a child is born to us, and a son is given 
 us, and His government shall be upon His shoulder, and 
 
 d Bibelwerk, in loc. 
 
3OO NOTES. 
 
 His name is called "Wonderful and Counsellor, God mighty 
 of worlds (or eternity), the Prince of Peace." 
 
 Other ancient authorities are also entirely on the same side. 
 
 Page 23, line 3. — The words of this text, Jer. xxxi. 22, 
 literally are, " Nekabah, the female, woman absolutely, 
 shall compass Geber, the strong one, man :" of which a de- 
 rivative, Gibbor, is the word used in Isa. ix. 6, El Gibbor, 
 " the mighty God." 
 
 Ibid., line 14. — The same fact is often noticeable among 
 the Rabbis, namely, that while they explain away the clear 
 declarations of Scripture, they find its doctrines in trifles. 
 Thus in Isa. ix. 7, "to multiply the government and the 
 peace," in Rabbinic Bibles rQ~iD7 is written with the mem 
 closed instead of open : and this the Rabbis almost univer- 
 sally explain of the Messiah being born of a virgin. R. Be- 
 rachias infers the same from Messiah being called in Zech. 
 vi. 12 a Branch, because a branch is not produced from 
 seed. And the same conclusion is drawn from Isa. liii. 2, 
 where Messiah is called "a root out of a dry ground," 
 and from Ps. ex. 3, which R. Berachias translates, " Thy 
 children shall be born unto thee, as the dew from the 
 dawning morn." 
 
 A different interpretation of the closed mem in Isa. ix. 7 
 is given by R. Tanchumim, who says, " Why is every medial 
 mem open, but this closed ? Because the holy and blessed 
 God wished to make Hezekiah the Messiah, and Sennacherib 
 Gog and Magog. But the THH n~rE, the measure of justice, 
 said, Lord of the world, what means this? David, who 
 spake so many songs and psalms of praise before Thee, Thou 
 didst not make the Messiah, and wilt Thou make Hezekiah 
 the Messiah, for whom Thou hast wrought all these signs, 
 but who has not spoken a psalm before Thee? And the 
 Bathkol, the voice of God, answered, My secret is my 
 secret." The meaning of this, separated from the enigma- 
 tical style of the Jews, seems to be, that Gog and Magog are 
 not to be understood of any definite nation, but of the op- 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 3 01 
 
 posers of God generally ; and that Hezekiah had less claims 
 even than David to be the Messiah. 
 
 Galatinus quotes from the "Revealer of Secrets," pub- 
 lished in quarto at Niirnberg, 1605, a most extraordinary- 
 explanation attributed to R. Hakkodesh, i.e. R. Jehuda, fifth 
 in descent from the Symeon (as is supposed) who held the 
 infant Christ in his arms. By a transposition of the letters 
 he makes the words "to multiply the government" mean 
 " the lady Mary." But the author of this work, J. C. Otto, 
 a converted Jew, seems to have intended only to mystify 
 Christians, and his whole work is replete with fictions. 
 
 Page 24, line 20. — Ewald's words are taken from his Jahr- 
 buch der Biblischen Wissensckaft for 1858, p. 71 : — " Die Tii- 
 bingischen gelehrten albernheiten wie sie sich vorziiglich 
 auch in bezug auf die Evangelien ausserten und noch aus- 
 sern, gegen die Deutsche .wissenschaft in Auslande einen 
 sehr erklarlichen widerwillen haben erregt." 
 
 Ibid., line 24. — The word almah, TVyTS, comes from a root 
 signifying ' covered/ ' concealed/ and is taken by Hebrew 
 scholars of the old school as referring to the separation of 
 maidens from the company of men, and by those of the new 
 school de signis pubertatis e . Its occurrence in the masculine 
 is rare ; it is found nevertheless in 1 Sam. xvii. 56, " whose 
 son the stripling is," nbl?, and in 1 Sam. xx. 22, where it is 
 equivalent to ~13?3, f boy/ used in the preceding verse ; but 
 is incorrectly translated 'young man/ the sense being ser- 
 vant, a usage it shares with Trots, puer, gar con, &c, the idiom 
 of all languages employing the term boy, and generally also 
 maid, in the sense of servant. And so Freytag says of this 
 very word, " A\i adolescens, turn de servo" The feminine is 
 more common ; thus Rebecca in Gen. xxiv. 16 is called m2?D, 
 ' damsel/ but in ver. 43, TV^>V, ' virgin/ In Exod. ii. 8 Miriam 
 is called an almah. So in Ps. lxviii. 25, the damsels playing 
 with timbrels are ahnahs, the custom of virgins taking part in 
 
 ' Meier, Hebr. WvrzelwSrterluch, p. 373. 
 
30 2 NOTES. 
 
 religious processions being well known. Again, in Cant. i. 3 
 we have, " Therefore do the ahnahs, virgins, love thee ;" and 
 ib. vi. 8, " There are threescore queens, and fourscore con- 
 cubines, and ahnahs without number," the latter being the 
 virgins in attendance upon the two previous classes. 
 
 The other passage in which it occurs is that on which the 
 Jews depend for their interpretation, viz. Pro v. xxx. 19, 
 " The way of a man with a maid." But even were we to 
 grant in this place the Jewish explanation, which is by no 
 means a certain one, it would not invalidate the general 
 meaning of the word, for it would simply signify ' one by 
 habit and repute a virgin/ And, in fact, euphemistic ap- 
 pellations are in all ages and countries given by the common 
 modesty of mankind both to the persons guilty of the sin re- 
 ferred to, and to the sin itself. And again, no one doubts 
 the meaning of virgo, yet Horace speaks of " virgines nuptce," 
 and Virgil apostrophizes Pasiphae, — 
 
 " Ah ! virgo infelix." 
 
 So, again, of irapOevos, no one doubts its meaning; yet 
 Homer says, — 
 
 ovt rtKev 'AarvoxVi 8<fyi<a "Auropos 'AfefSao 
 irapdevos alSoir] 1 , — 
 
 and he uses the term because her children were irapQkvioi. 
 
 So Sophocles makes Hercules say of Iole, tols i/xoh 7r\ev- 
 pols ofiov KAtOelaav, — 
 
 • ri]v EvpvT€tav oicrOa Srjra irapdivov % ; 
 
 And similarly in Hebrew, the word bethulah, which no 
 one denies to mean virgin, is used in Joel i. 8 for a young 
 widow. 
 
 In general the distinction between the words na'arah, 
 ahnah, and bethulah, is as follows: — na'arah is a young 
 woman whether married or unmarried ; bethulah is a virgin, 
 whether young or old ; ahnah is both young and a virgin h . 
 Kimchi, however, in his Liber radicum says that ahnah 
 simply means na'arah, ' girl,' and Abulwalid and Saadias 
 
 f II. ii. 514 B Track. 1219. 
 
 h Miillcr, Judenthnmh, p. 636; Galatinus, De Arcanis, p. 531. 
 
SERMON I. 303 
 
 agree with him : but as Jews they do but give the tradition 
 which began in the second century, and which the renegade 
 Aquila first made public in his version, the object of which 
 was to supersede the Septuagint and weaken the argument 
 for Christianity deduced from the prophetic books. His ren- 
 dering is, 'I&ov fj veavcs iv yaarpl avWafiftavei /ecu Titcrec 
 vlbv koX fcaXeaeis ovo/ia avrov 'E/xfMavovijX. On the other 
 hand, the sense which they ascribe to the root of the word, 
 that namely of concealing and hiding, plainly points to the 
 old custom of closely guarding unmarried maidens : so in 
 the Greek Anthology they complain, — 
 
 rjntv 8'ouSe <pdos Xsvaativ dffiis, aWa /xeAadpois 
 KpvirrSfievai fycpepais (ppovriai rrjKS/xffat. 
 
 And of a similar custom prevailing among the Jews we 
 read in Cant. iv. 12, — 
 
 " A garden enclosed is my sister, my betrothed : 
 A spring shut up, a fountain sealed." 
 
 I add Jerome's words at length : — " The usual term in 
 Hebrew for virgin is bethulah, for which Isaiah here sub- 
 stitutes almah, which the Jews translate ' a young woman/ 
 except the Septuagint, which renders it 'the virgin.' The 
 Jews say, moreover, that almah is an ambiguous term, sig- 
 nifying either a young woman, or one living in secret, ab- 
 scondita, that is, airoKpv^. And so Aquila renders almah, 
 where in Genesis it is applied to Rebecca, not by 'girl' or 
 ' young woman/ but by abscondita. We say, therefore, that 
 almah not only signifies a virgin, but something more ; — 
 cum i-mTdaet — a virgin living concealed, and secret, never 
 exposed to the look of young men, but guarded by the 
 watchful care of her parents." He then adds the remark, 
 that while bethulah may signify a virgin of any age, almah 
 can only signify one just arrived at puberty. 
 
 The conclusion of Meier, to whom I have referred in the 
 text, as being probably the best Hebi*aist of the Tubingen 
 school, is as follows: — "A married maiden, a young married 
 woman, in which sense Gesenius and others take it, the word 
 nowhere strictly means, though even were an instance found, 
 it would give no more difficulty than the similar use of 
 
304 NOTES. 
 
 irapdkvos, mrgo, nViro. . . . This latter word, hethulah, signi- 
 fies a virgin with respect to her civil position ', as kept sepa- 
 rate from the male members of the f amity, and carries with 
 it no idea of modesty and bashfulness like the term alma//." 
 
 His own explanation of the prophecy is marked by his 
 usual ability and audacity : — " The centre of the prophecy is 
 the name, • God with us/ with a community therefore ; that is, 
 with the Jewish Church, conscious of God's presence within 
 it. The future mother is a virgin, and yet with child; so 
 clearly an impossibility, that every one at once feels that the 
 language is symbolical. The mother, therefore, is the ideal 
 community, the holy city, called now the daughter of Zion ; 
 and then, again, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, (Is. xxxvii. 
 22.) Elsewhere, again, the virgin, the daughter of Judah, 
 (Lam. i. 15,) and the virgin of Israel. So, again, in Judith 
 Jerusalem is called Bethuliah, 'the Virgin of God/ imply- 
 ing the notion that she shall never be violated by the hand 
 of the enemy ; and such is Isaiah's meaning here." 
 
 Even Meier, however, in ch. ix. 6 sees the promise of 
 a Messiah, but denies that the Immanuel is identical with 
 the child " Wonderful." " There is, however," he says, 
 " a certain connection between them ; for Isaiah mounts up 
 step by step from the immediate to the remoter development. 
 The Immanuel is the sign of God's presence among His dis- 
 tressed people ; so. much so, that in ch. viii. Immanuel is God 
 Himself present with His people, and therefore their country 
 is 'the breadth of His land.' And finally, by the divine 
 protection out of night and darkness a new light shines, 
 and Messiah with His wondrous attributes is born for 
 the people." 
 
 I may add that, like Meier, most of the German commen- 
 tators grant that almah means a virgin, though each has his 
 own way of getting rid of the supernatural element. Thus 
 Maurer says it means a virgin whom the prophet was about 
 to marry. Umbreit, the virgin, pointing to some chance 
 maiden among the bystanders— within such a time as the 
 
 1 "Es bczeichnet die Jnngfrau Hirer burgerlichen Stellung nach." ^Der 
 Proph. Jen., in loc. 
 
SERMON 1. 3O5 
 
 virgin standing there could conceive. So Bunsen, Die 
 Jungfrau da. Eichhorn, Paulus, &c, an ideal virgin, within 
 the time that an ideal virgin could marry and have a son. 
 Ewald, a virgin, i.e. one neither too young nor too old to 
 marry. Hofmann, a virgin, but in the vocative case; '0 virgin, 
 i.e. house of David, as yet unmarried of the Lord, thou 
 shalt see thy promises fulfilled, and have a son.' See also 
 the note to page 14. 
 
 Drechsler, Der Proph. Jcs., i. 287, says that almah means 
 virgo nubilis, and bethulah, virgo illibata; and asks, " Why did 
 Isaiah call the Messiah's mother almah, and not bethulah ? 
 It was because all that was high in rank and of noble 
 birth in Judaea had apostatized from God's covenant ; and 
 therefore the Saviour did not come in princely guise, but 
 in poverty ; not as a hero riding on a war-horse, but meek 
 and lowly, upon an ass's foal. Nor did He gather round 
 Him the Pharisees and learned scribes to form His court as 
 the Priest-king of Jerusalem, but publicans and fishermen. 
 The world He saved not by life and conquest, but by 
 death and submission. And equally His followers must be 
 " the servants of all." Now it is in Isaiah that prophecy first 
 takes this direction. The Deliverer of the realm is a new-born 
 infant, the government rests upon the shoulder of a child. 
 And that child is born of an almah. He is not the voyvl 
 offspring of the queen, not even the son of a married wife ; 
 but of one whom law and propriety withdraw from this office. 
 God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
 the mighty, and things which are not to bring to nought 
 things which are. It is therefore not the nbVQ, the virgo 
 illibata, but the 7V^7'2, the virgo nubilis, who brings forth the 
 Messiah." With this interpretation Drechsler connects Isa. 
 liv. 4, " the shame of thy unmarriedness," ~pmb37. 
 
 Page 26, line 31. — According to the Talmud the whole 
 prophecy relating to Mahershalal must be taken spiritually ; 
 for quoting the words of Isa. viii. 2, it says, " What has 
 Uriah to do with Zechariah the son of Barachiah ?" (Our 
 version reads Jerebechiah, but the Septuagint, the Peschito, 
 
 x 
 
306 notes. 
 
 and the Vulgate all read Barachiah, with the Talmud.) " For 
 Uriah/' the Talmud proceeds, " lived in the times of the first 
 temple, as you may read in Jer. xxvi. 20, but Zechariah in 
 those of the second temple, Zech. i. 1. Why then does 
 Isaiah mention them both together ? It is that we may be 
 sure that as the prophecy of Uriah, who spake of the desola- 
 tion of the holy land, has been fulfilled, so shall also the 
 prophecy in Zech. viii. 4., &c, of its restoration equally be 
 accomplished." The Talmud, therefore, regards the whole 
 account as allegorical, and so far contradicts the literal in- 
 terpretation of later times. 
 
 Page 28, line 10.— " Von Kase und Honig nahrt man sich da, 
 wo man nicht den Boden ackerbauend bewirthshaftet, sondern 
 nomadisch lebend von demjenigen sich erhalt was die Heerden, 
 und was Feld und Wald geben." Drechsler, in loc. } whose 
 commentary, among many others, proves that Germany has 
 scholars quite able to contend with the Rationalists upon 
 their own ground. We may add that the expression in 
 Exodus, " a land flowing with milk and honey," is a proof 
 that the Israelites were then living a nomad life, whereas 
 the "higher critics" would have us believe that the Penta- 
 teuch was written in the days of Solomon, when the people 
 were settled in towns, and agriculture prevailed. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Page 33, line 18. — Among those who grant a Messianic 
 interpretation are Dathe, Michaelis, Doderlein, Koppe, 
 Pluschke, Eichhorn, Kuinol, Herder, von der Palm, Rosen- 
 muller, Umbreit, Hengstenberg, Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, 
 Drechsler, Meier, Knobel, Reinke, &c. Of course, many of 
 these names immediately suggest that the writers would not 
 grant the fulfilment of the prophecy in our Lord. Among 
 those who deny a Messianic interpretation are Grotius, 
 Hensler, Paulus, Hendewerk, Jahn, Gesenius, and Bunsen. 
 
 Page 38, line 18. — " Galilee of the nations" properly 
 signifies " the circle of the heathen," the heathen march, or 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 307 
 
 border. Subsequently the latter word was omitted, and the 
 district was simply called "the circle" Galilee. We find it 
 as early as the days of Joshua, (chap. xx. 7,) but probably 
 limited to a much narrower extent of country than it con- 
 tained in our Lord's time, when it included the four tribes of 
 Issachar, Zebulon, Naphthali, and Asher. "We also find the 
 plural in the book of Joshua, (chap. xiii. 2,) in the sense of 
 marches, or borders ; " the borders of the Philistines." 
 
 Page 48, line 23. — The constant striving of the German 
 school after novelty is well exemplified here by Meier, who 
 for 13?, ' eternity/ Father of eternity, suggests *T?, ' witness.' 
 'Father/ he adds, is a title of honour, and therefore Father- 
 of- witness, or of-testimon}^, may mean 'the protector of the 
 law/ In fact, it is to be borne in mind that it does not 
 follow from a text or a translation having been disputed by 
 the Germans, that therefore it is disputable. A reputation for 
 cleverness can be best earned among them by attacking 
 something which everybody else grants. And as each new 
 aspirant after celebrity must find some fresh opportunity of 
 distinguishing himself, it follows that in the long run every 
 tenet, and text, and version must be challenged. But it is 
 generally understood among them that these efforts of in- 
 genuity are not to be too seriously understood. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Page 64, line 14. — As usual, there is no settled interpreta- 
 tion among 1 the chiefs of the neologist school in their treat- 
 ment of this prophec} r , but every commentator offers his own 
 novelty. Thus, for instance, Koppe argues that the text is 
 corrupt, and says that chaps, x. 17 — 23, 28 — 34, xi., xii., 
 are a forgery, the work of some later seer, and refer to the 
 invasion of the land by the Chaldees under Nebuchadnezzar. 
 He leaves Isaiah, however, in possession of chap. x. 5 — 16, 
 24—27. 
 
 Vater says that the whole prophecy was written in Ma- 
 nasseh's time, and refers to the deportation to Babylon. 
 
 x2 
 
3°8 NOTES. 
 
 Jungmann, and some of the older Jews k , explain it of 
 Zerubbabel. Abenezra, Grotius, Paulus, &c, apply it to 
 Hezekiah. On the other hand, Beckhaus, Jahn, Gesenius, 
 Hitzig, and others, defend the authenticity of the whole pro- 
 phecy : Kuinol, Dereser, Jahn, and a multitude of others, 
 apply it to our Lord ; while Eichhorn, Bauer, De Wette, 
 Gesenius, Hitzig, Ewald, Knobel, Bunsen, &c, refer it to an 
 ideal Messiah. 
 
 Page 71, line 8. — Freytag gives vibravit hastam, and elatus, 
 altus font, as different meanings of j^ but does not dis- 
 
 cuss their connection. Possibly j^ may have signified 
 
 ' a spear-handle,' the wood of a spear, and hence the sense 
 of brandishing. These two words are of rare occurrence 
 
 in Arabic, but the adjective ^J^, 'great/ 'high/ 'noble/ 
 is of daily use. 
 
 Page 72, line 1. — The word 2??5> ' a hewn-down trunk/ 
 {arbor succisa, Kimchi,) in Isa. xi. 1, is from the same root as 
 Cyt?, ' the lopped branches,' in Isa. x. 33, as is shewn by 
 Gesenius in his Thesaurus. In this place, as so often is the 
 case in our Version, the unskilfulness with which the pro- 
 phecies have been divided into chapters obscures the whole 
 meaning of the passage. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Page 91, line 29. — The manner in which Isaiah alwa} T s re- 
 gards Babylon, and not Nineveh, as the centre of the heathen 
 world, and foretells that the treasures of Jerusalem must be 
 carried there into captivity, is as remarkable a fact as his 
 mentioning Cyrus by name as the conqueror of Babylon. 
 There are some very good remarks upon this in Sticr's Jesaias 
 
 k Cf. Theodoret. in xi. 10. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 3°9 
 
 nicht Pseudo-Jesaias, Einleitung, p. xxxvi. We may add, that 
 Babylon only became tlie capital in Esarbaddon's time, to- 
 wards the end of Isaiah's life. 
 
 Page 93, line 6. — Hieron., Prcef. ad Es. ad Paula m. In his 
 Epistle to Panlinus he also says, " Non prophetiani mihi vi- 
 detur texere Esaias sed evangelium." Augustine, Civ. Dei, 
 xviii. 29, says much the same : — " Esaias ergo inter ilia, qua3 
 iniqua arguit, et justa praecepit, et peccatorum mala futura 
 prsedixit, etiam de Christo et ecclesia, h. e. de Rege et ea, 
 quam condidit, civitate, multo plura quam cseteri prophetavit : 
 ita nt a quibusdam Evangelista quam Propheta potius di- 
 ceretur." 
 
 Page 94, line 3. — The proof adduced in favour of Isaiah's 
 life having been prolonged into Manasseh's days, is the 
 notice in 2 Chron. xxxii. 32, that Isaiah wrote an account 
 of Hezekiah's life and actions. 
 
 Ibid, line 12. — Though Isaiah had withdrawn from the 
 affairs of State, it by no means follows that his mental ac- 
 tivity had ceased. Prophecy was, in the truest sense, the 
 national literature, and while it was perpetually in opposition 
 to the civil power, and even to the external rites of the 
 Mosaic ritual, it exercised a constantly growing influence 
 over the mass of the people. And in this influence is to be 
 found the explanation of the fact, that on the return from 
 Babylon it was no longer the descendants of David who 
 exercised the supreme power, but the priests and prophets. 
 Of this written school of prophecy Isaiah was by no means 
 the founder, but he vastly increased its influence ; and in 
 these last chapters we have, so to speak, his esoteric writings, 
 entrusted to its safe keeping, and intended for its constant 
 study. 
 
 Page 100, line 3. — The critics who dispute the genuine- 
 ness of the last twenty-seven chapters arc compelled by their 
 own arguments to include also in their condemnation must 
 
3 JO NOTES. 
 
 of the earlier portion, especially chaps, xiii. 1 — xiv. 23 ; 
 xv. } xvi. ; xxi. 1 — 10 ; xxiii. ; xxiv. — xxvii. ; xxxiv,, xxxv. ; 
 and xxxvi. — xxxix. An able defence of the authenticity of 
 these passages may be seen in Reinke, Die Messianischen 
 Weissagungen, vol. ii. pp. 483 — 556. 
 
 Ewald contents himself with rejecting chaps, xii. 2 — 14, 
 23; xxi. 1 — 10 ; xxiv. — xxvii. : but to atone for this mode- 
 ration, he exercises his critical faculties in detecting inter- 
 polations in the last twenty-seven chapters, and leaves the 
 Pseudo-Isaiah as bare as the real one. 
 
 Ibid., line 13. — Both Eichhorn and Ewald grant, for in- 
 stance, that chaps, lvi. 10 — lvii. 21 must have been written 
 before the exile ; but the form of the prophecy (cf. page 129) 
 renders it an impossibility to remove this passage from its 
 place. Moreover, just the same arguments apply to ch. lxv. 
 
 Page 120, line 14. — Passages in which Isaiah repeats the 
 same word in both portions of the parallelism are, — in the 
 first part, xi. 5 ; xiv. 4 ; xv. 1, 8, &c. ; in the second, xlii. 
 9; xliv. 3; lix. 10. 
 
 Page 121, line 9. — Gresenius, in his Thesaurus, enumerates 
 eleven or twelve passages in which ' to be called' signifies 
 ' to be ;' and every one of them is taken from the two por- 
 tions of Isaiah. I think, however, that Zech. viii. 3, " Je- 
 rusalem shall be called a city of truth," might fairly be 
 added to the list ; but this, again, is but an imitation of 
 Isa. i. 26. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 Page 129, line 9. — This triple division has been, I think, 
 universally received since the publication of Riickert's work, 
 Die Propheten iibersetzt und erklart, Leipsig, 1831. Of these 
 parts the first has most peculiarities, Babylon being men- 
 tioned in it four times, the Chaldaoans five, Cyrus twice by 
 name besides allusions to him, and Bel and Ncbo once, — all 
 
SERMON V. 311 
 
 of which entirely disappear in the other two parts. In the 
 second part the Prophet is chiefly occupied with the office of 
 the Messiah, to whom in the first he had only once directly 
 referred in chap. xlii. 1 — 9. In the third the Messiah is 
 only briefly alluded to, whereas the glory of the Church is 
 described at large, especially in chap, lx., which has nothing 
 corresponding to it in the other two portions. 
 
 Page 141, line 28. — This fancy of Saadia Gaon's comes to 
 us at second-hand, through Aben Ezra, who, in his com- 
 mentary on Isa. Hi. 13, says, " It. Saadia Haggaon understood 
 by the ' Servant of Jehovah' the Prophet Jeremiah, arguing 
 that the words ' He shall sprinkle many nations' referred to 
 the outpourings of prophecy by his mouth, and that 'He 
 shall grow up as a tender plant' pointed to the fact that Jere- 
 miah was very young when he entered upon the prophetic 
 office, and that consequently his tone at first is very humble. 
 So, in chap, xviii. 20, he speaks of himself as 'interceding 
 for the people,' which is equivalent to ' bearing their sins !' 
 So, in chap. xi. 19, he says, ' I was like a lamb brought to 
 the slaughter,' which was the fulfilment of Isa. liii. 7 ! And. 
 lastly, in chap. xl. 5 we read, ' The captain of the guard 
 gave him victuals, and let him go/ which adequately ac- 
 complishes the words, 'Therefore will I divide him a por- 
 tion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the 
 strong.' " 
 
 Any one who reads this schoolmaster's own arguments will 
 cease to wonder that no second Jew was ever found to accept 
 his conclusion, and will dismiss him with the same summary 
 contempt as Aben Ezra, or Abravanel, who says, " I see no 
 one verse which can be referred to Jeremiah. How shall he 
 be extolled, and be very high ? When did kings close their 
 mouths in his presence ? How did he bear our griefs, and 
 carry our sorrows ? In short, this explanation is entirely 
 erroneous, and supported by 110 Scriptural authority." 
 
312 NOTES. 
 
 SE&MON VI. 
 
 Page 163, line 9. — Upon the question whether the idea of 
 atonement by suffering is innate in man or not, the reader 
 may consult Kreuzer, Symbolik, ii. 270 ; Buttmann, MytJios 
 von Heracles; Lassaulx, Linoshkigc. For the Jews it cer- 
 tainly was contained in the theory of sacrifice ; but when, 
 after the return from exile, their obedience to the law de- 
 generated into mere pride of it, all ideas of a suffering Mes- 
 siah became hateful to them. Their early prophets and 
 psalmists, however, entertained juster views. 
 
 Ibid., line 28. — Translation of the Targum of Jonathan. 
 Isa. Hi. 13 — liii. 12. 
 
 Hi. 13. "Behold, My Servant the Messiah shall prosper: 
 
 He shall be high, and great, and strong exceedingly." 
 
 14. " While the house of Israel long time hoped for Him 
 
 Their aspect was dark among the nations : 
 
 And their glory inferior to that of the sons of men." 
 
 15. " So shall He scatter many nations ; 
 
 Kings shall be silent at Him ; 
 
 They shall lay their hands upon their mouth : 
 
 For that which none had related to them they have seen ; 
 
 And what they had not heard they have understood 
 
 thoroughly." 
 liii. 1. ""Who hath believed this our message ? 
 
 And the strength of the mighty arm of Jah, to whom now 
 
 is it revealed?" 
 
 2. " And the righteous shall be magnified before Him ; 
 
 Lo ! like young plants in blossom, and as a tree that puts 
 
 forth its roots beside the streams of waters, 
 So shall the holy generation be multiplied in the land that 
 
 was emptied of it. 
 Its aspect is not a common aspect (literally, profane, as 
 
 opposed to sacred), 
 Nor its fear that of (i.e. inspired by) an ordinary person : 
 But its glory shall be the glory of holiness : 
 So that every one that shall see it shall look close at it." 
 
 3. " Therefore shall He be despised, 
 
SERMON VI. 313 
 
 But shall abolish the glory of all kingdoms : 
 They shall he powerless and distressed. 
 He is as a man of sorrows, and prepared for sicknesses ; 
 And it was as though there was the taking away of the 
 face of His glory from us despised and not esteemed." 
 
 4. " Therefore shall He pray for our sins ; 
 
 And our iniquities shall on His account be forgiven : 1 
 Though we be regarded as bruised ; 
 Smitten from before God, and afflicted." 
 
 5. " And He shall build up the holy house, which was profaned 
 
 because of our sins ; was delivered up because of our 
 iniquities : 
 And by His teaching shall peace be multiplied upon us, 
 And when we obey His words our sins shall be for- 
 given us." 
 
 6. " All we were scattered like sheep ; 
 
 We had departed each to his own way; 
 But the will of Jah was to forgive us all our sins for His 
 sake." 
 
 7. "He prayed, and was answered; 
 
 And He opened not His mouth again, because He was 
 
 accepted: 
 He shall deliver up the mighty among the Gentiles as 
 
 a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is silent 
 
 before her shearer : 
 And there shall be none before Him who shall open his 
 
 mouth to speak a word." 
 
 8. "From chastisements and punishment He shall gather (unto 
 
 Him) our captivity : 
 And the miracles that shall be wrought for us in His day, 
 
 who can narrate ? 
 For He shall take away the dominion of the Gentiles from 
 
 the land of Israel : 
 The sins which My people have committed, shall overtake 
 
 them, (the Gentiles)." 
 
 9. " He shall deliver up the wicked to Gehenna ; 
 
 And the rich in wealth which they had gotten by violence 
 
 unto the death of perdition; 
 That the workers of sin may not be established, 
 Nor speak treacheries in their mouth." 
 10. "And it was the will of Jah to melt in the furnace and 
 
3 * 4 NOTES. 
 
 purify the remnant of His people, to cleanse their 
 
 soul from sin : 
 They shall see the kingdom of their Messiah ; 
 They shall have many sons and daughters ; 
 They shall prolong their days, 
 And those who perform the law of God shall by His good 
 
 pleasure prosper." 
 
 11. "Prom the slavery of My people shall He liberate their 
 
 soul ; 
 They shall see retribution falling upon their enemies : 
 They shall be satisfied with the prey of their kings. 
 In His wisdom shall He justify the just, that He may 
 
 make many obey His law : 
 And He shall pray for their sins." 
 
 12. " Therefore will I divide Him the spoil of many Gentiles, 
 
 and the riches of their fortified towns : 
 He shall divide a prey because He delivered His soul unto 
 
 death, and made the rebellious subject to His law. 
 And He shall intercede for the sins of many: 
 And for His sake pardon is granted to the rebellious." 
 
 In this paraphrase it is important to observe that its 
 extreme unfaithfulness is the result not of views antao-o- 
 nistic to any other explanation, but of its embodying the 
 current theology of Jonathan's time. While in common with 
 every ancient authority it refers the prophecy to the Messiah, 
 it carefully separates from Him every word of humiliation. 
 The " marring of visage" is applied to the Israelites wasting 
 away in their long expectation of His coming. They it is 
 who are " despised and not esteemed," because His glorious 
 face is still withheld. The plural number is constantly sub- 
 stituted for the singular, wherever there is any epithet of 
 grief or shame, as though it applied to the people, and not to 
 the Messiah. Sometimes even it is the temple of Jerusalem, 
 as in ver. 5, which is profaned and delivered up. That He 
 does not open His mouth is because His slightest word is 
 answered : the lamb led to slaughter is the Gentile world ; 
 and it is their yoke which is taken away from the land of 
 Israel; whose enemies are to be delivered up to ruin, while 
 they, purified by chastisement, are to see the kingdom of 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 3*5 
 
 the Messiah, and enjoy a complete and final triumph. As 
 the Targum of Jonathan was written at a time anterior to 
 the birth of our Saviour, it is a proof how carefully the Jewish 
 doctors in their teaching had eliminated from Scripture every 
 expression referring to the humiliation of the Messiah, and 
 explains the difficulty felt by the Apostles and people gene- 
 rally, at reconciling our Lord's low estate and life of suffer- 
 ing with their one-sided interpretation of the prophetic 
 writings. 
 
 Page 178, line 14. — Another proof they deduce from Isa. 
 xxxii. 20, where the ox is Messiah-ben-Josef, to whom 
 belongs the prophecy in Deut. xxxiii. 17 ; while the ass is 
 Messiah-ben-David, to whom belongs Zech. ix. 9. Most of 
 these proofs are from the Bereshith Eabba. The passage in 
 the Babylonian Talmud respecting Messiah-ben-Josef will 
 be found in Tract. SukJca, fol. 52, col. 1. 
 
 Page 180, line 3. — The war of Gog and Magog forms so 
 essential a portion of the Jewish system of prophetic inter- 
 pretation, that it may be interesting to quote a passage con- 
 cerning it from the Jerusalem Talmud, which treating of 
 the Pentateuch, says that the prophecy of Eldad and Medad 
 in the camp was as follows : — At the very end of days Gog 
 and Magog and their forces shall go up to Jerusalem, but 
 shall fall by the hand of King Messiah : and so great shall 
 be the slaughter, that for seven whole years the children of 
 Israel shall be entirely occupied in burning their armour, 
 neither ploughing their land nor pruning their trees during 
 that time. 
 
 Ibid., line 23. — The theory of a twofold resurrection is 
 founded upon Dan. xii. 2; but though it is said there that 
 some will rise " to shame," yet the Jews affirm that none of 
 their race will finally forfeit the gift of everlasting life, un- 
 less by denying, 1. the existence of God, 2. the divinity of 
 the Mosaic law, or 3. the doctrine of a resurrection. The 
 older interpreters, like Kimchi, Maimonides, &c, taught that 
 
3 1 6 NOTES. 
 
 the resurrection would take place at intervals ; the just arising 
 at the first coming of Messiah, but the mass of the people 
 only at the end of the world. Abravanel and his school 
 make the final judgment follow almost immediately upon 
 Messiah's advent, and make the Gentiles rise as well as the 
 Jews. 
 
 Page 182, line 17. — The notion that the coming of Messiah 
 was indefinitely delayed because of the sins of the Jews is 
 as old as the Babylonian Talmud. For in Tract. Sanhcdrin, 
 R. Elia, referring to the Jewish tradition that the world was 
 to last 6,000 years, 2,000 without law, 2,000 under the law, 
 and 2,000 under the Messiah, explains the delay in His 
 coming by the unworthiness of the people. In the same way 
 his state is made to depend upon their merits ; for the same 
 Tract, says, " In Isaiah lx. 22 we read, The coming of Mes- 
 siah is in its time, and yet God says, I will hasten it. This 
 discrepancy is to be thus understood. If the Jews deserve it, 
 I will hasten it ; if not, it will be in its time. So Dan. vii. 13 
 represents Messiah as coming in glory, but Zech. ix. 9 in 
 humility ; but this means that if the Jews deserve it the 
 Messiah shall come in the clouds of heaven, but otherwise 
 upon an ass." The Talmud then proceeds thus : " King Sapor 
 said to Samuel, You say that Messiah will come riding on 
 an ass, I will send Him a bay horse." Shortly afterwards it 
 says, " I asked Elias when Messiah would come ? He an- 
 swered, Go and ask Him. But where, said I, shall I find 
 Him ? He will sit, said he, at the gate of Rome, among 
 the poor and wretches covered with sores, whose wounds 
 He will bind up one by one." I may add that we lose the full 
 force of Zech. ix. 9 by translating iy$ ' meek :' it means 
 ' poor/ 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 Page 261, line 14. — One of the earliest writers against the 
 Manichccs was Titus, Bishop of Bostra, a contemporary of 
 Ephrem Syrus. His work consists of four books, in the first 
 
SERMON IX. 317 
 
 of which he considers the philosophical dogmas of Manes, in 
 the second the proofs alleged by him for the existence of an 
 evil principle in creation, in the third he refutes his attacks 
 upon the Old Testament, and in the fourth his calumnies of 
 the New. In the original Greek only the first two books are 
 extant, and a very small portion of the third, the rest, as 
 given in Gallandii Bib. Vet. Pair., lib. v. pp. 328 — 345, being 
 spurious. A Syriac translation, however, of the whole w r ork 
 has been discovered in that famous Nitrian manuscript, justly 
 considered the gem of the whole collection, No. 12,150, con- 
 taining the " Recognitions" of St. Clement, the "Theophania" 
 and " The Martyrs of Palestine" of Eusebius, and this treatise 
 of Titus, all now published by the labours of Dr. Lee, Dr. 
 Cureton, and Dr. Lagarde. Its date is a.d. 411, being only 
 forty years subsequent to the probable time of Titus's death 
 in a.d. 371. a In this work the third book seems to me by far 
 the most interesting, and in it the author shews that the tree 
 of the knowledge of good and evil contained no noxious 
 quality in itself, but was simply a very easy probation, suited 
 to the undeveloped state of Adam's reason. Man is now, he 
 argues, capable of a higher probation, and therefore his fall 
 "was not an unmixed evil, but rather a good, foreseen in God's 
 counsels. "Upon creation no change passed in consequence 
 of Adam's fall, nor is such the meaning of Gen. iii. 17, but 
 from the first the earth was fitted to be the place of man's 
 probation (§ 18), who was indeed created sinless, but at the 
 same time capable of sinning. Much therefore was provided 
 which would have been useless to Adam had he never sinned, 
 and the command in Gen. i. 28 implies labour, fowling, fish- 
 ing, hunting, and agriculture, (§ 21). Men err in applying 
 to the whole of creation what is true only of paradise, a 
 special place fitted for Adam and Eve in their state of sim- 
 plicity, when as yet they could not distinguish good and 
 evil. " Adam's disobedience, therefore, made no change in 
 creation, nor was any new dispensation introduced, but God 
 foreknew man's disobedience, and had from the first pre- 
 pared for him whatever would be serviceable for his use." 
 He had even fitted him for death (§ 22), and- " death, though 
 
310 NOTES. 
 
 it carries with it the idea of punishment, was really a great 
 and wonderful kindness from God to man," (§ 18). 
 
 In the second book (§ 23, ed. Lagarde) he equally denies 
 that death is an evil, " for what necessarily happens to all is 
 no evil . . . besides, if there were no death, the just man 
 would be eternally labouring to attain unto virtue, without 
 being the better for his pains, and the unjust man would 
 pass an immortality in wicked pleasures ; both of which things 
 would be monstrous. But the intervention of death both 
 puts a stop to the unrighteous pleasure of the sinner, and 
 perfects the righteous labour of the good. For since the 
 power of sinning is a necessary part of man, as being in- 
 volved in the power of right-doing, but this power, given to 
 man in order that he might attain to what is honourable and 
 good, has a tendency in most men to degenerate into the 
 easier path of sin, whereby virtue becomes the more admir- 
 able as being coupled with difficulty, death is useful to both, 
 to the just and to the unjust, as being to the one a resjnte from 
 his labours, and to the other a termination to his misdeeds." 
 
 In the same book, § 39, he argues that " though wild 
 beasts are objects of fear, they are not evil. For evil can 
 exist only where an operation of the reason takes place, but 
 a mere physical instinct is incapable of cither virtue or vice. 
 ... A wild beast therefore is no defect, for it does not pos- 
 sess reason, but a wicked man is an evil, because he delibe- 
 rately pursues objects of the nature of which he is cognisant." 
 Titus then proceeds at some length to discuss the moral 
 object of the existence of wild beasts in creation (cf. also 
 § 38), considering that they were intended to awaken in man 
 fear, his general fault being a want of earnestness, which 
 makes him content with earth, and forgetful of his higher 
 duties. lie also shews how admirably adapted these animals 
 are to their place and use. 
 
 These instances may suffice to shew with how much more 
 vigour the Fathers discussed these questions than is usual 
 now. To say nothing of imaginative accounts of the sup- 
 posed effects of the Fall upon creation, there are pseudo- 
 scientific men who would have us believe that the discovery 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 3*9 
 
 of the great antiquity of death, disproves the Mosaic cosmo- 
 gony. Titus shews that the world before and after the fall 
 was much the same. It was different to Adam, because he 
 was placed under new relations, but was in itself unchanged. 
 Even he was created capable of dying, and eating the for- 
 bidden fruit made no immediate change in his physical state. 
 " He did not immediately fall down and burst asunder." Lib. 
 iii. § 24. In short, he frankly admits that this world is the place 
 of man's probation ; as such it must have its trials and diffi- 
 culties, and each man's probation must have its termination, 
 and therefore the existence of death. Probation is even the 
 more honourable in proportion as it is more difficult, and 
 therefore was more honourable after the fall than before, and 
 consequently the fall was not an evil to the human race, nor 
 inconsistent with God's goodness. Paradise was an excep- 
 tional state of things, and the probation in it was very simple 
 and easy, but such as it was foreseen Adam would be unequal 
 to. Why man is subject to this probation we cannot tell, for 
 we are not God's counsellors ; but grant it as a fact, and it 
 solves for us all the supposed difficulties about the existence 
 of sin, and evil, and pain, and death. Even of their abstract 
 nature we know little or nothing, but they are, he argues, 
 blessings and kindnesses to us as moral and responsible 
 beings. 
 
 |lnr.tcb b» illtssrs. $.hrl»tr, Connnarlut, ©xforb. 
 
Lately published by the same Author, at the University Press, and to be 
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