took of acquiring grace and knowledge; we must, like Him, be obedient to our parents; like Him be diligent in reading and learning the Scriptures, and like Him place our delight in the Temple of the Lord'.

SECT. XI.-The Baptist in the Wilderness.-Matt. iii. 1-12; Mark i. 1–8; Luke iii. 1-18; John i. 15-28. ST. MARK SO expressly describes the preaching of John as the beginning of the Gospel, that although we gladly linger over the history of the birth and youth of Jesus Christ from that natural tendency, that all have to know how so wonderful a Child passed through his boyhood, yet we must now pass to the beginning of the age of the world which the prophets so unanimously pointed out for the time of good things to come. It is no wonder, then, that St. Luke so exactly marks the year, nay, and almost the day when "John showed himself unto Israel." This is declared to be the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, or the year of the world 3957, -a most remarkable year, that should be fixed in all our memories, in order that the condition and state of the times, when the Gospel began, might be well marked and observed2. It is supposed that John did not enter upon his ministry, nor come forward to public view, till he was nearly thirty years old. It would seem

1 Bishop Heber.

2 Dr. Lightfoot.

3 Dr. Robinson.

that he had lived constantly in the wilderness from his birth till the time of his preaching*; but, by a wilderness is not meant a place wholly devoid of inhabitants, but a place in which the inhabitants were few, and the habitations more dispersed than in villages; and "the wilderness of Judæa" was probably within the territories and in intimate connexion with Hebron, the place where John was born. It is most likely that John began to preach here, and from thence went to other places as he saw occasion, and as the Spirit moved him: it cannot be conceived that he walked or stood in the open wilderness, and there began to preach, but rather that he would betake himself to those places where there was a concourse of people. He probably began his ministry about the place of his birth; and that he went abroad from thence up and down, "all the country about Jordan ;" and that when his converts were grown numerous, he baptized them in the river, where probably he could alone in those districts find the requisite element. It may, perhaps, seem strange, that the people should flock in so great numbers, as the Evangelists show they did, to receive so strange a practice and doctrine as that of baptism in the river; but the ceremony was not wholly new to the Jews, since, by a baptism, proselytes were always admitted to the Jewish

4 Dr. Chambers.

5 Dr. Whitby.

66

religion; but this, which is termed “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," was doubtless new, as a badge whereby those that received it, were to be marked out for preservation against that destruction that was to come upon the nation for unbelief, -an evidence of 'fleeing from the wrath to come." Every thing in the appearance, the manners, and the doctrine of the Baptist, tended to excite a solemnity and an attention in the minds of his audience. He was clothed precisely as Elijah his prototype is described to have been in the Book of Kings, with a rough garment and “a leathern girdle about his loins:" as one that professed to be a messenger of penitence and humiliation to the world': and he fed on such simple food as the desert afforded to the lowest of its inhabitants. The abstemiousness and rigour of the Baptist's life was calculated to produce very important effects. It was fitted to excite great attention and reverence in the minds of his hearers: it was well suited to the doctrine he was to preach,-that of repentance and contrition, to the seriousness he wished to inspire, and to the terror he was appointed to impress on impenitent offenders'.

There were many things that concurred to make the Jews think of Christ, when they saw the Baptist: they had learned, by divers pregBishop Porteus.

• Dr. Lightfoot.

'Bishop Hall.

8

nant evidences, both in the Law and in the prophets, that this was the time when Christ should come; now was the sceptre departed from Judah; for the Romans were lords of the nation; and now were Daniel's seventies expired; by all which they knew this was the long expected time. When, therefore, in this period of their greatest expectation, they beheld the pre-eminent sanctity, piety, and zeal, the admirable strictness, austerity, and spirit, and the strange, unusual, and powerful preaching of the Baptist, it is no wonder if they entertained a doubtful musing "whether he were the Christ or not." Yet it is only said they "mused,' but they did not put it to question. It would have been easy to have showed them, that he was not of the tribe from which their Messias was to spring; nevertheless all the Evangelists give in substance the same reply of the Baptist, which shows his own humility, and at the same time bears testimony to the dignity of Jesus; “I indeed baptize with water," -my baptism, like my preaching, is preparatory only, leading to another baptism of the spirit, which shall cleanse the souls of penitents from every thing that defileth, through faith in the true Messiah, and his heavenly doctrine. This Messiah is not in truth far off, "for there standeth One among you whom ye know not;" He appears, like other men, un

Dr. Lightfoot.

F

attended, undistinguished, lowly; He doth not, as yet, think proper to manifest his power and glory; but, hereafter, ye will find Him to be far other than He seems. As to myself, of whom some among you are pleased to entertain an high opinion, I am nothing; "He who cometh after me is preferred before me," as much as the greatest master is preferred before the meanest of his servants, who is scarcely deemed worthy to perform the least office about his person. This testimony did St. John give to the Saviour of the world in the presence of the Priests, and Levites, and people. Intent upon humbling himself, that his great Lord and Master might be exalted, he declared himself a messenger only, "sent to prepare his way," and every thing in him and about him spake the same language'.

SECT. XII.-The Baptism of Christ.-Luke iii. 1—18. BUT although John knew the mystery of the incarnation of the Christ, and that He was already born, yet, notwithstanding their near relationship, his education in the desert would seem to have wholly alienated him from his kindred for the Evangelist distinctly records this speech of the Baptist, that "I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, 'Bishop Horne.