appears to have been altogether unnecessary, John having already and frequently acknowledged Jesus as that Prophet which was to come into the world. When the Priests and Levites were sent from Jerusalem to question John as to his real character and pretensions, and to learn whether he himself was not that great Deliverer of whom a general expectation was at that time entertained in the East," he denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ."* He owned that he was not that Light, but was sent only to bear witness of the Light, and prepare the way of the Lord. In consequence of this confession, when our Saviour afterwards came to fulfil all righteousness and be baptized of him in Jordan, he, at first, hesitated, from a sense of his own great unworthiness, to perform so honourable an office to one so much his superior. His scruples were, however, at length over-ruled. He saw the Spirit of God descending in a bodily shape, and resting on the head of Jesus. He heard a voice from Heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased;" and then in the fulness of conviction, he freely and openly declared to every one, upon whom his testimony could have any influence, that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had baptized, was indeed the Lamb of God and

* John i. 20.

the Saviour of the world. After such a public and unequivocal declaration of his sentiments, and after having heard of all the many and mighty miracles which our Saviour performed, and which were rumoured throughout all Judea, it does undoubtedly appear singular that he should yet think it necessary to send two of his disciples to inquire, whether he was that Prophet which was to come, or they were to look for another. Upon this point we should have supposed him to have been already thoroughly satisfied.

For the resolution of this difficulty it has usually been maintained, that the inquiry did not originate in any doubts which the Baptist himself entertained, but was merely instituted for the satisfaction of his unbelieving followers, who might, perhaps, have so great a respect for their immediate Master, as to be unwilling to acknowledge the superior power and dignity of any other prophet. It is certainly possible that this might have been the reason of the inquiry; but there are yet several weighty objections to this statement of the case, which induce me to prefer a different opinion. When the disciples of John first came to our Saviour, they immediately announced both by whom and for what purpose they had been sent. "John Baptist," said they,

"hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he

that should come, or do we look for another?" In answer to this demand our Saviour first repeated in their presence many of his most astonishing miracles, and healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead, and then dismissed them with this command, "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see." The message had been sent by John, and to him the answer is not only generally, as in the natural course of things, but more peculiarly and specially directed. Now this is a form of expression which, I think, our Saviour would scarce have used, had he not been assured that the satisfaction of the Baptist himself was principally intended. For Jesus knew what was in man, and needed not that any one should tell him the object of their requests. He perceived men's thoughts long before, and generally directed his answers to the thoughts, rather than to the words, of those by whom he was questioned. Such also then we might naturally expect would have been his conduct upon the present occasion; and had he been aware that the inquiry was prompted rather by the doubts of the disciples than of their Master, it is highly probable that he would have changed his language and said, "Ye have seen my miracles and

ye have heard my doctrines-Go, then, believe, and be no longer faithless."

But upon this principle the original difficulty still recurs, and we have still to account for the uncertainty which the Baptist experienced in his own mind. In this, however, if we will duly consider the circumstances in which he was placed, and the channel through which the fame of our Saviour's miracles had hitherto been communicated to his ears, we shall find but little, if any difficulty at all. John was now lingering out his life in captivity under the tyranny of Herod, far removed from the scene of our Saviour's glory, and of course entirely deprived of the power of becoming himself an eye-witness of his miracles. To this the Evangelist expressly directs our attention, when he introduces his account of the message, by observing, that " John had heard, in the prison, the works of Christ." The only means, therefore, which he possessed of ascertaining whether any miracles had really been wrought, and whether the person by whom they were said to have been wrought was that very Jesus whom he had himself baptized, was, by making the necessary inquiries through the medium of those in whose honesty and fidelity he could place implicit confidence-those who knew the person of Jesus, and who would faithfully relate to him the

things which they beheld. For though the wonderful mercies of Christ might be, and were, actually rumoured through all the region round about, yet so many false prophets had already arisen, to whom the multitudes had liberally attributed miraculous powers, that little could be gathered from that circumstance; and the voice of common fame is, at any rate, of too fleeting and uncertain a nature to form a sufficient foundation for our belief in any matter of difficulty and importance. The disciples of John might also, and as we are informed, did shew him of all these things. But it is by no means certain that they spoke of them as wonders which they had seen with their own eyes, or as facts which they knew from their own experience. It is rather probable, from the course which John afterwards pursued, in sending two of them as his messengers to our Lord, that they had merely detailed them to him as the subjects of general and common conversation. But the Baptist was not so destitute of sense and prudence as to trust the issue of his faith upon the very slender credit which is due to a flying report. To remove those doubts, therefore, which were unavoidably and rationally inspired by the suspicious channel of the testimony, he chose two of his disciples, on whose observation and fidelity he could best rely, to ascertain the