way of the Lord;" and the passage which St. Matthew quotes with brevity, declares that "the glory of the Lord should be revealed, and that all flesh should see it." It is clear, therefore, that it has no application to the return of the Jews, and refers solely to those events to which the evangelists so explicitly apply it. John the Baptist was THE VOICE," or herald, and Jesus was the JEHOVAH whose personal appearance as "God manifest in the flesh," and subsequent glorious manifestation, he proclaimed and prepared.

This mission of John, as the harbinger of our Lord, exhibits another instance of the fulfilment of those prophecies to which St. Matthew, as writing first especially to the Jews, directed their attention more frequently than the other evangelists. At the same time the accomplishment of a prophecy which borrows its terms from the magnificence of eastern monarchs, who were preceded by heralds, and before whom valleys were exalted and hills levelled, in a manner so manifestly spiritual, and turns the attention so absolutely from external to moral grandeur, sufficiently reproves those who contend too strenuously for the literal accomplishment of the sayings of the ancient prophets, and thereby often fall into a Jewish mode of interpreting them. Prophecy has its peculiar imagery, its own appropriate dress of metaphor and allegory, which must not be overlooked. Here, the monarch is Christ, but his majesty is in his doctrine, his character, and his works. The herald, too, is a man in rough raiment, issuing from the wild solitudes in which he had been trained to converse with God, to rouse a slumbering people by urging their immediate repentance upon pain of imminent judgments; and the levelling of hills and valleys, is that preparation of the heart for the doctrine of Christ which consists in contrition and humility. That the Baptist was a powerful preacher, the immense number

of persons who flocked to his baptism, confessing their sins, is a sufficient proof; that he was a successful one, in his special office of" preparing the way of the Lord," appears from this, that several of the apostles, and others of the early disciples of Christ, had been previously the disciples of John; and the effect of his preaching was, no doubt, not only to prepare them, but multitudes of the Jews, to receive the gospel, both in Judea and in other places into which his disciples carried his doctrine; for of this the evangelical history contains many indications. There was also probably in this dispensation of John the Baptist, something of a typical character. The way of Christ in all ages is "prepared" only by repentance; and wherever that is preached with power, and under right views of the Lamb of God, to which it is to point, as taking away the sins of the world," the valleys are exalted, the mountains and hills are brought low, the crooked is made straight, and the rough places plain; and then comes the revelation of the Lord in pardoning mercy, and manifestation of Christ

as the salvation of God."

The ministry of the Baptist was of a kind peculiar to itself. As a prophet, he not only spoke of the immediate appearing of the Christ; but pointed him out to his disciples; and his baptism was in fact the token of initiation into a new dispensation intermediate between that of Moses and fully revealed Christianity. It was a declaration of repentance and renunciation of sin, and it was a profession of faith in the immediate revelation of the Messiah, and of trust in him to take away sin; for to him as the Redeemer John directed his converts. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." With baptisms or washings, as emblems of the putting

away of sin, the Jews were familiar; and proselytes from Gentilism to the religion of the Jews were baptized as well as circumcised in token of the same thing, and the renunciation of their old religion. All the Jews therefore who in truth, and with a right understanding of the case, submitted to John's baptism, so far renounced Judaism in its primitive form as a ground of hope, as to wait for the remission of the sins they repented of and confessed no longer from their accustomed sacrifices, but immediately from the Messiah: "Behold," said John, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Lightfoot has showed from the Rabbinical writings, that the Jews themselves have held, and still hold, that repentance should precede the coming of Messiah. The circumstance of our Lord's submission to John's baptism does not affect this view of its nature and design. That it was not necessary for Christ, as a sign of repentance, and passing into a new dispensation and better hopes of salvation, is clear from the objecting of John to administer the peculiar rite of his ministry to Christ until urged by his authority; and also from the ground on which our Lord puts his own act, which he makes not an act of repentance, but of fulfilling all "righteousness," that is, perfectly obeying the will of the Father in every appointment laid upon him; and finally, from the baptism of John as administered to Christ, rising into an entirely different and higher order from his ordinary one; for our Lord was then "baptized with the Holy Ghost," which it was no part of John's baptism to impart. All these circumstances prove that John was, in the case of our Lord, employed in a ministry quite distinct from

his common one; and that the chief end of the baptism of Christ was to attest his Messiahship fully to John, by making him the witness of the sign which God had previously appointed. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God."

Verse 4. Garment of camel's hair, &c.— John wore the same dress as Elijah, or, as it is written in the New Testament, Elias, in whose "spirit and power" he came, and whose name he figuratively bore. He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite," 2 Kings i. 8. This garment was not of the fine hair of the camel, spun and woven, of which a soft cloth was made, called pn, from which our camblet is derived; but either the skin of the camel dressed with the hair, or a rough fabric manufactured from the coarser pile. This was worn by the prophets, not for purposes of bodily mortification, as some have dreamt; but yet in a spirit of selfdenial.

Locusts and wild honey.-The latter, μɛλɩ ɑypiov, was produced by bees which collected in trunks of trees and in rocks, throughout Palestine; thus (Psalm lxxxi. 16) we read, "honey out of the stony rock." The former, aкpides, has been made the subject of conjectural and emendatory criticism; but the real locust dried is used as food throughout the east, and some of the species were permitted to be eaten by the law, Leviticus xi. 22. The Rabbins state that it was usual for the Jews to hunt after locusts for food.

Verse 6. And were baptized.—That is,

as John himself explains it, "with water unto repentance." See note on verse 3. In Jordan.-Water, for the baptism of such multitudes, could only be procured from the river, in a part of the country where springs and fountains were not found, or were private property. That the people were immersed with their clothes on, it would be absurd to suppose; that they were baptized naked, would be an indecent assumption; and that dresses should have been provided, is impossible. They, no doubt, went down to the water's edge, and then the element was poured upon them; for the expression, "baptized IN Jordan," means no more than within the banks of Jordan, that is, in the bed of the river, which had a donble bank, because of its great overflow

at certain seasons.

Confessing their sins.-Not unto John, but unto God; though, being powerfully affected by his awakening sermons, they probably did this audibly. Yet even this does not certainly appear; for the very nature of the rite of baptism, as practised by John, implied confession of sin, a pleading guilty to his reproofs, and a resolution to seek remission of sins from the Messiah who was immediately to succeed him. If there was more than this tacit acknowledgment of sin, it was probably like that mentioned in Ezra x. 1, where Ezra himself expressed the confession, and the congregation "wept very sore." A similar scene is described in Nehemiah ix. The immense multitudes which came to John would necessarily prevent a particular confession being made to him by each individual. Of these multitudes we may infer, from singling out the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees for reproof, that a great proportion were sincerely penitent. So powerful was the ministry of this extraordinary messenger of God.

Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees.-These sects being now for the first time mentioned, a short account of them is necessary. The most satisfactory derivation of the name

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of PHARISEES is from w, to separate, because they assumed to themselves a superior sanctity. Josephus's account of them is, that they valued themselves for their exactness in keeping, and their skill in interpreting, the law, and seemed to excel all others in the knowledge and observance of the customs of their fathers. If they sprung from the Assideans,, or, the pious, described in the Maccabees as, εκουσιαζόμενοι τῳ νομῳ, voluntarily devoted to the law," they had a good origin; and it is probable that the genuine and vigorous piety of the Jewish church after the return from Babylon, was embodied in this sect, at least as far as respected the influential class of society. That they had generally degenerated into formality, superstition, and hypocrisy, though not without many individual exceptions, is evident both from the writings of the evangelists, and from contemporary history. On the doctrines of the resurrection from the dead, and the immateriality of the soul, they were more orthodox than the Sadducees; but they interpreted the prophecies respecting Messiah in a gross and worldly sense; placed religion in ceremonies; turned it into an instrument of gaining popular applause; made a show of their prayers and alms; affected not only to keep the law, but to go beyond the requirements of its ceremonial precepts, in their obedience;-paying tithe of "anise, mint, and cummin," practising more frequent ablutions than the law required, fasting twice a week, and in some instances submitting to painful austerities and mortifications; but with all this outward show of strictness, they neglected the purification of the heart, and the practice of moral virtue. They were proud, arrogating to themselves the peculiar favour of heaven, contemptuous of others, especially of the body of the people, from whom they exacted an abject reverence; and covetous, for under pretence of sanctity they made a prey of the ignorant and unwary. To colour all these evils, they had a delusive system of casuistry, and pleaded in justi.

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fication traditions of the elders, to which they not only gave equal authority with the law of God, but often interpreted the law by them, contrary to its true meaning, so that, as they were charged by our Lord, they "made the commandments of God of none effect by their traditions." Most of the Jews at present are Rabbinists or Pharisees, that is, they believe in, and observe, the traditions; the remainder are Karaites, who only regard the law in its literal interpretation.

The SADDUCEES were coeval with the Pharisees, and probably, like the present Karaites, originally owed their distinction to their rejecting traditions, and adhering to the text of the Pentateuch. The oriental and Greek philosophy, from the time of Alexander the Great, however, infected the learned among the Jews, and gave rise to multifarious speculations and theories. The Sadducees especially affected philosophy, openly professed the tenet of materialism, denied the resurrection of the body, and the existence of angels and men departed. To the law of Moses they, however, professed the strongest attachment, and were equally bigoted with the Pharisees, subjecting it, however theologically, to a philosophical interpretation. The men of rank and wealth, the court, and the nobles, were chiefly of this sect. Thus, although the Jews at the coming of our Lord were free from the charge of idolatry, which was their ancient easily-besetting sin, they had generally fallen, as a people, into a state of awful declension from truth and piety, more deeply so probably in Judea than in the Greek cities, and in Jerusalem most of all. There was another Jewish sect, not mentioned in the Gospels, the Essenes. These were abstemious and austere in their manners, given up to mystical speculations, and lived apart from cities, in communities of their own, and chiefly in Egypt, and in the wilderness of Judea. None of these appear to have attended our Lord's min

istry; but afterwards many of them became Christians, and are supposed to have infected some of the early churches with their doctrines of abstaining from meats, the worshipping of angels, &c.; and they sowed the seeds of many sects which, in various ways, adulterated Christianity.

Come to his baptism.-They wished to submit to this rite principally, no doubt, because it was administered by a prophet, who brought them tidings of the immediate revelation of Messiah; and they thus professed their faith in John's mission as the Messiah's harbinger, and as such hoped to recommend themselves to him. This seems to have been their motive: self-confident as they were, they would scarcely have submitted to a rite which implied some change of religious views; for they were familiar with the practice of baptism, which was administered by them to Gentiles and their families when they embraced the Jewish religion. But of John's baptism in its spiritual character, as baptism "unto REPENTANCE," and to FAITH in the coming of Messiah to take away or remit sin, they had no conception; for these self-righteous persons in their own opinion had no sins to confess, and therefore we do not read that they came like the others, confessing their sins." To them, therefore, John appears to have refused the distinguishing rite of his dispensation, because of their misconceptions of it, and their want of repentance. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance, was his address to them. Show that you truly repent, by your humility, broken-heartedness, self-renunciation, and self-abhorrence, by your acknowledgment of sin, and your renunciation of it; and then come and be baptized. Some indeed contend, that after this warning they were baptized but this question appears to be set at rest by Luke vii. 27 -30, where our Lord, having commend. ed the character of John the Baptist, the evangelist adds," and all the people that

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d

heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized of him." They were offended and went away, denying that mission of the Baptist which at first they appeared to acknowledge.

Generation of vipers, &c.—The offspring, or children of vipers, in opposition to their boast of being the children of Abraham, -men of subtle and malignant dispositions. The word exova is used in a metaphorical sense, closely analogous to this, by classic authors.

Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?-Some take this as an expression of surprise. So Macknight : "Ye Pharisees form your righteousness on the works of the law; ye Sadducees deny the doctrine of a resurrection; how is it then that men of your principles come to a baptism of repentance?" It is, however, better understood as implying a negation,-no one hath warned you, no one effectually you are not penitently apprehensive of the displeasure of God; but either, as Pharisees, trust in yourselves that you already possess the special favour of God, or, as Sadducees, reject the doctrine of future punishment entirely. The wrath to come is not to be understood of the destruction of Judea; for John dealt with his hearers as sinners before God, and liable as such to the penalty of sin in a future life. THIS was the wrath of which he speaks; and it is a tremendous doctrine which he thus teaches in one sentence: this wrath is always wrath to come; that is, it is not only a future penal visitation, but even when this visitation has arrived, it will still be "wrath to come" for ever! "Fools" only can make a mock at sin" when these are its consequences.

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d John viii. 39.

Verse 9. And think not to say within yourselves, &c.—A common mode of expression, says Lightfoot, in the Talmud. Mn doente λeyew is equivalent to "be not of opinion;" ne lubeat vobis, "be not disposed to say;" let not this delusive opinion have a place in your thoughts. We have Abraham to our father, a relation which was the theme of their constant boastings, and from which they expected salvation; merely by virtue of their fleshly descent, though both the faith and the works of Abraham were wanting among them. There is no imputation of the holiness of pious ancestors to their children, and personal regeneration can alone qualify men for the kingdom of God. For God is able of these stones, &c. Perhaps John pointed to the rocks and stones in the bed of the Jordan. The meaning is, not that children to Abraham could be raised up from stones in the sense of natural descent and relationship, which was a thing impossible; but that as children to Abraham were at first raised up by a miracle in the birth of Isaac, so though God should destroy the then race of Jews, no purpose of his would fall to the ground; because he was able to raise up a people from the stones, to stand in the place of the natural descendants of Abraham, were that necessary to accomplish the purposes of his providence and grace. That there was also a tacit reference to the calling of the Gentiles, is very probable. They were despised by the Jews as though they had been the stones under their feet; and were as little likely to become the true church of God in the world, as stones were to become living men. Yet God by his almighty grace not only gave them spiritual life, and adopted them as Abraham's believing seed; but formed them into his church, to the exclusion of the unbelieving Jews,