heavenly a preacher. With fear and trembling they applied to him, as the affrighted gaoler afterwards did to Paul and Silas, saying, "What shall we do "then"?" And when a penitent will ask advice of his spiritual guide, with a determined resolution to follow it, he is not far from the kingdom of God. He is sensible of his disease; and that, in the maladies of the mind, is half the cure. St. John in his answer, enjoins not legal, but evangelical sacrifices, exhorting his converts to show the sincerity of their conversion by loving their neighbours and relieving their necessities, as God had loved and relieved them. "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that "hath none; and he that hath meat let him do like"wise." These works of feeding and clothing the poor, including all other acts of mercy under them, are mentioned, as being the most necessary and indispensable; "and he," says a pious writer upon this passage, "who is not moved with his brother's "misery, deserves to find God unmoved with his "own.'

Among others that came to be baptized, were some publicans, or tax-gatherers; a set of men, whose employment rendered them odious, as it often tempted them to court the favour of those who employed them, or to gratify their own avarice, by fleecing the people. These also were importunate with St. John, saying, "And what shall we do? "And he said unto them, Exact no more than that "which is appointed you." The reflections of the

* Luke, iii. 10, &c.

writer above-cited, upon this case of the publicans and the following one of the soldiers, are so extremeJy sensible, judicious, and pertinent, that the reader will have an obligation to me, for presenting him with them, nearly as I find them. A wise preacher, like St. John, should distinguish the abuses of any state or condition of life from the condition itself; he should be so far from disturbing either the peace of private consciences, or the public repose, by condemning necessary employments, that he ought carefully to promote both, by contenting himself with only retrenching the disorders and injustice of those who exercise them. To be exact in not perinitting any abuses in employments of this nature, is to serve the state: and those loose casuists who allow and authorize them, are pernicious to governments, by rendering these employments odious to the people, by favouring their murmurings, by encouraging acts of injustice, and thereby giving occasion to rebellion and revolt.

"And the soldiers demanded of him, saying, And "what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do vio"lence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and "be content with your wages." St. John here, in the last place, regulates the duties of military persons, and shows, that no condition is excluded from salvation. The business of war is not in itself at all opposite thereto; since there have been not only Christian soldiers, but even great saints, and generous martyrs, of that profession. If all war was contrary to the Gospel, St. John would not have allowed those who presented themselves before

him to continue in that state. However, it is certainly full of obstacles to salvation, which are with difficulty surmounted. A state, which is generally embraced either out of passion, or libertinism, or through a blind destination of birth, the exercises whereof are so violent and tumultuous, agrees but little with the exercises of Christianity, or the spirit of the Gospel, which is all peace, charity, and meekness. It is notwithstanding just and necessary, that there should be men to defend the state; but it is still more just and necessary, that this should not be done at the expense of salvation. The grace of God can do every thing: this is what ought to comfort those who intend to serve him, in serving their king and country.

One cannot but observe the general agreement and harmony which seem to have prevailed, at this time, among men, otherwise of tempers and dispositions very different from, and opposite to, each other. Jews and Gentiles, Pharisees and publicans, Sadducees and soldiers, all confess their sins, and participate of the same baptism; all struck with apprehensions of some impending evil, all flying from the wrath to come; forgetting their mutual hostilities and antipathies, and, like the creatures in the days of Noah, taking refuge together in the ARK. As if the prophecy of Isaiah had now begun to receive its accomplishment, the publicans, who, before the preaching of John, were ravenous as evening "wolves," became innocent as the "lamb." The soldiers, who

• Quesnel.

had been formerly fierce and cruel as the " lion," became tame and tractable as the "ox," and submitted their necks to the yoke of the Gospel. Such of the Pharisees likewise, who, before their baptism, had been venomous as the asp," or cackatrice," did, by the worthy receiving of this baptism, and the grace which God gave them, become mild and gentle as the "sucking infant," or "weaned child"."

The concord thus produced in Judea by the sermons of St. John, and the tranquillity which the whole earth then enjoyed, sitting quiet, as it were, in expectation of her Lord, betokened the manifestation of the Prince of peace. "Then cometh Jesus from "Galilee to Jordan to John, to be baptized of "him"." After thirty years passed in retirement at Nazareth, the blessed Jesus was now to break forth, like the sun from a cloud, or a stream from the bowels of the earth, to enlighten mankind by his doctrine, and refresh them with the influences of his grace. The mighty concourse of all ranks and degrees of people attending St. John at the river Jordan, rendered that the fittest place where he might first show himself to the world. He who knew no sin, but was to take away the sins of all other men, presented himself in the crowd of sinners, as one of them, and solicited "the baptism of repentance," not that water might sanctify him, but that he might "sanctify water to the mystical washing away of sin."

66

66

b See the Works of Dr. Thomas Jackson, ii. 522.

Matt iii. 13, &c.

Confounded at the thought of the Master being baptized by the servant, St. John at first "forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, "and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said

66

I unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it be"cometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he "suffered him." Jesus Christ, as condescending to stand charged with our sins, and, to that end, being "made under the law," was to fulfil the "righteous"ness" of the law, as it consisted in an obedience to ceremonial rites, as well as moral precepts. In the character and capacity of our substitute, he underwent circumcision, although he had no sin of his own to be cut off; and received baptism, although he had no pollution of his own to be washed away. What Christian can slight the ordinances of the church, when he sees the Redeemer, for his sake, submitting to observe them all?

No sooner was Jesus baptized, but he "came up straightway" out of the river, like another Joshua, leading his people, through the waters of Jordan, to the land of promise. And as he was praying,' doubtless for success in the great work he had undertaken, "Lo, the heavens were opened, and the "Spirit of God," encompassed, we may presume, with a blaze of glory, "descended in a bodily shape "like a dove," speaking better things than that of Noah. In this form, emblematical of innocence and purity, it "lighted," settled, and abode upon him; the Father thus consecrating him to his office, by

d Gal. iv. 4.