It will not be necessary to cite the passage at length, it being one perfectly familiar to every Christian.  I will, then, before I consider it, first premise, that since it has been heretofore abundantly made evident, that the Messiah of the Old Testament was not to suffer, and die, but to live and reign, it is according to the rules of sound criticism, and I think sound theology too, to interpret this solitary passage, so that it may not contradict very many others of a directly contrary import.  Now, if this passage can relate only to the Messiah, it will throw into utter confusion the whole scheme of the prophetical scriptures.  But if it can be made to appear, that it does not necessarily relate to him; if it can, consistently with the context, be otherwise applied, the whole difficulty vanishes.  Now, the authors of the New Testament have applied this prophecy to the Messiah, and to Jesus as the Messiah; and for doing so, they have been accused of misapplication of it-from the earliest times; since we know from Origen, that the Jews of his time derided the Christians for relying upon this prophecy; alleging that it related to their own nation, and was a prophecy of their suffering and persecuted state, and of their ultimate emancipation and happiness.  And this interpretation of the prophecy the learned Vitringa, in his commentary upon Is. in loc., allows to be the most respectable he had met with among the Jews, and, according to him, “to be by no means dispised.”

In order that the fitness or unfitness of this application of the prophecy may be made apparent, and evident, we will new lay before the reader this famous prophecy, part by part, each part accompanied by the Jewish interpretation.

Isaiah lii. 13, “Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high.”  Interpretation—­My servant Israel, though he be in great affliction for a time, yet hereafter shall be released from captivity, and be honoured and raised to elevation very high among the nations of the earth. [That the Jewish nation is spoken of, in the singular number and under the title of God’s servant frequently in the Old Testament, is well known, and will be here made certain by a few examples.  Isaiah xli. (the chapter preceding the prophecy,) “But thou Israel my servant, thou, Jacob, whom I have chosen,” presently afterwards, “saying to thee, thou art my servant.”  Again, chapter xliv.—­ “Now, therefore, hear Jacob my servant,” and so frequently in the same chapter.  See also ch. xlv., and Jer. ch. xxx., and Ps. cxxxvi., and Isaiah throughout, for similar examples.]

“And many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.)” That is—­And many were astonished at thee, on account of thy abject state, and miserable condition, being squalid with misery, and suffering more than any men.

“So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them, shall they see, and that which they had not heard, shall they consider.”