It

This is an error of the press. should be, the Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church. I am the more anxious this error should be corrected, from my knowledge of the fact, that Missionary concerns in this Diocess are, with very evident propriety, under the entire management and control of the eoclesiastical authority. For this purpose the above mentioned Committee is appointed by the Convention, to co-operate with the Bishop, who is ex officio its President. We have, indeed, Missionary Societies in the Diocess; and they have been, and continue to be, eminently useful. But it is upon the true Christian principle of aiding the Church. They raise funds to be at her disposal. The Missionaries, thus aided, are designated as such. Their reports to the ecclesiastical authority are transmitted by that authority to the Societies; whose members thus enjoy the rich satisfaction of knowing the good to which they are instrumental.

A SUBSCRIBER.

New-York, March 11, 1819.

Considerations on the Life and Death of St. John the Baptist. (Continued from vol. ii. p. 374.)

SECTION IV.

Considerations on the Prophecies relative to St. John in the Old Testament.

BEFORE we proceed to view the Baptist in the exercise of his ministry, it will be proper to look back to the predictions in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, concerning his office and character. We shall begin with that remarkable one," Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.' 99

As there was amongst the Jews a general expectation of Messiah's appearance, at the time when he did ap

* Mal. iv. 5, 6.

pear, so an opinion likewise prevailed, that the world should be first prepared for his reception, in some extraordinary manner. But wrong ideas of his appearance and kingdom introduced mistakes with ragard to the person who should precede and proclaim him. According to the notions then current, occasioned by applying to his first advent the prophecies which belonged to his second, Messiah was to come in power and majesty, to confer on the sons of Jacob dominion over the Gentiles, and make Jerusalem the metropolis of the world. And by misunderstanding this prediction of Malachi,. they had imagined, that Elijah the Tishbite, should return from heaven, as his precursor. For this reason it was, that when the sanhedrim sent a message to St. John, desiring to know whether he were Elias? he answered, "I am not: not the Elias by them intended and expected. But that St. John was the person foretold by Malachi, under the name of Elias, we have the declarations of our Lord himself to his own disciples, "Elias is indeed come; and to the Jews, "If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." By these expressions it was evidently Christ's intention to put his hearers upon the search after something more than the words, in the bare letter of them, might seem to contain. He directed them to go deeper into things, to study with attention the mission of the Baptist, his office and character; to compare together persons, times, and events; and so to discover, in what sense John was Elias, and why Malachi had given him that appellation. But if they did this, and were once brought, in the person of John, to acknowledge Elias, who was to precede the Messiah, they must necessarily, in the person of Jesus, acknowledge the Messiah, whom Elias was to precede. And therefore, as they were obstinately resolved not to own the Master, Christ knew they would not recognize the servant, or receive this saying concerning him. Thus when the chief priests and elders

interrogated our Lord in the temple, "By what authority dost thou these things, or who gave thee this authority? I will also," said he, "ask you one question, The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or. of men?" They perceived the dilemma, and having considered consequences, made the only safe answer, "We connot tell ;"* an answer which did honour to their prudence and their caution, but cer tainly at the expense either of their wisdom or their honesty. As sitting in the chair of Moses, they ought to have known whence the baptism of John was; and if they did know, they ought not to have been shy of declaring it.

That St. John was the Elias pre dicted by Malachi, we have also the testimony of an anglet at the annunciation of his birth, who cites the very words of the prophet; "He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," &c. And if this be the case, it follows by necessary infer ence, that by "the great and dreadful day of the Lord," before the coming of which Elijah is promised, Malachi intends primarily and immediately, the day, not of the world's, but of Jerusalem's destruction. For want of adverting to this, an opinion hath prevailed among Christian interpreters, that the whole prophecy relateth principally to the day of judgment, and to the appearance of an Elias, who shall then precede Christ. Whether there will be such an Elias at that time, and so the second advent will symbolize with the first in the circumstance of being previously proclaimed by a harbinger, like St. John, sent for that purpose, is a speculation with which we shall not at present concern ourselves, resting satisfied with the application of the prophecy, upon infallible grounds, to the person of the Baptist, the undoubted forerunner of our Lord, when he came to visit us in great humility.

God punisheth not sinners, till he hath first invited them to repentance. He giveth fair warning before he

Matt. xxi. 23. † Luke i. 7.

striketh; and a day of grace, in which mercy may be sought, and pardon found, always goeth before a day of vengeance and extermination. Elias was sent "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord;" John called his countrymen to turn from their sins, and believe in their Messiah, ere yet the desolations of Jerusalem exhibited to the wondering nations a specimen of that Almighty power and inflexible justice, which shall one day lay the world itself in ruins.

The third chapter of Malachi containeth a most evident and clear prediction of Messiah's advent, with that of his precursor St. John, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." The prophet goes on to foretell the effects of Christ's advent in the selection of a peculiar people, and the purification of a new priesthood, to offer new and acceptable offerings. "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years" pleasant as in the days when their fathers offered in faith, and the desire of Messiah's appearance was the ruling passion of their souls. The rest of the chapter is employed in reproving the rebellion, sacrilege, and infidelity of the Jews; and the fourth chapter opens with a description of the day fatal to Jerusalem-" Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." For the consolation

ment."

of the faithful, God, by his prophet, again foretelleth Messiah's advent, with the increase, victory, and triumph of the church-" But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as the firstling of bullocks: and ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." In the mean time, "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgAnd then, when the law hath done its office, and prophesied for the appointed time, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet; not the personal Elijah, but, as the angel expoundeth it, one to preach and live after the model of his example, in his "spirit and power." Thus, in the prophecy of Ezekiel, where God foretelleth the union of Israel and Judah in the days of Messiah, he saith, " "They shall be my people, and I will be their God, and David, my servant, shall be their prince for ever." Not that Christ was to be David risen from the dead, or when he came, was to bear his name; but he was to be, in certain respects, like David, conquering the enemies, and sitting upon the throne of Israel. So the forerunner of Messiah was not to be Elijah descended from heaven, nor was he, at his manifestation, to be called by that name; but was to be like him in his office and character. Such a messenger, saith God, "I will send, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," that is, the day that should "burn like an oven," the day of Jerusalem's destruction, mentioned in the first verse. "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the child ren, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth," or the land," with a curse." In the citation of this passage by the angel, one part of it is paraphrased "To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the

* Ezek. xxxvii. 23.

.

wisdom of the just." The meaning of the whole seems to be, either that men of every age and every disposition should be united in truth and charity; or, as some learned expositors understand the passage, that St. John should bring many of the Jews to have the same heart and mind which their fathers and progenitors had, who feared God, and believed his promises; that so their fathers might, as it were, rejoice in them, and own them again for their children; in other words, that he should convert them to the faith of that Christ whom their fathers hoped in, and looked for; as it was said by the angel, "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God;"+ lest, all continuing obstinate in their unbelief, till the day when a rejected Saviour should visit an apostate people, the curse should be universal.

Beside these notices afforded us by Malachi, there is a prophecy on the same subject in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, to which St. John referred the priests and Levites, when they pressed him, saying, "Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Esaias." But let us take a view of the whole context, as far as it concerns our present purpose. Isa. xl. 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye,

my people, saith your God.

The future manifestation of Christ's

kingdom is represented to the prophet in spirit, with the concomitant signs and circumstances of it. He hears the voice of God directing his servants to comfort his people, by proclaiming certain glad tidings which had been communicated to them. These glad tidings were the tidings of the Gospel. The persons to whom they first came were Zacharias, the blessed Virgin, Simeon, and Anne, who composed sacred songs upon the occasion, and spake of Messiah's advent "to all

* Luke i. 17. + Luke i. 16. + John i. 23.

2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare. is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her

sins.

Good news should be related, with à suitable aspect and accent. The manner should correspond with the matter. "Speak ye comfortably," or, as it is in the Hebrew phraseology, "to the heart of Jerusalem;" let your words be as cordials, to revive and cheer her in the midst of her sorrows and sufferings. The topics of conso lation to be insisted on are three. First, "Her warfare," or "appointed service, is accomplished;" the days of her continuance under the yoke of bondage are expired; the fulness of time is come, for her passing from that state into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; she will now be relieved from duty, and dismissed from the station on which she hath so long watched, in expectation of the promised redemption; she will be "delivered out of the hands of her enemies, to serve God without fear." Secondly, Her iniquity is pardoned;" the expiation is about to be made, which all her sacrifices and lustrations prefigured, which all her prophets foretold the blessed person is born, in whom God is well pleased, both granting and accepting repentance unto salvation by the remission of sins," that men may be "justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses," although men were justified under that dispensation, through faith in him that was then to come, according to the Gospel preached before unto Abraham. Thirdly, "She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins;" she

* Luke ii. 38.

3. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God.

Isaiah, while reciting the divine injunctions to those whose office it should be to "comfort Jerusalem," seemeth to break off suddenly, as one interrupted in his discourse by the sound of a voice.* And as if he had listened, and perceived it to be the sound of that voice which so many prophets and kings had desired to hear, and had not heard it, namely, the voice proclaiming the actual incarnation of Messiah, he breaks forth in transport, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness!"

Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;

Prepare the way! a God, a God appears. The voice which thus sounded in the prophet's ears, so long before it was really heard upon the earth, was that of the Baptist, who, at the proper season, was sent to dispose the hearts and affections of men for the reception of their Saviour, when he should make his appearance.

4.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place plain.

These are the words of the prophet himself, unfolding the counsels of God concerning the manner in which Messiah's kingdom should be established in the world, and the alterations which must necessarily take place in order to that end. "Every valley shall be exalted;" to the poor in spirit, the lowly and contrite souls, the Gospel shall be preached, and they shall be exalted in faith and hope-" and every

mountain and hill made low;" on the contrary, pride of every kind, and in every shape, exalting itself, whether in Judaical pharisaism or in Gentile philosophy, against the knowledge of God, shall be made low, and subdued to the obedience of Christ: "and the crooked shall be made straight;" truth and rectitude shall succeed to error and depravity-" and the rough places plain" every thing that offendeth shall be removed, and all difficulties and inequalities smoothed, till unammity and uniformity prevail. Thus shall the way be prepared for the King of Righteousness to visit his people, to dwell in them, and to walk among them.

5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,

Immediately after the proclamation and preparation made by the Baptist, the Divinity was revealed in human nature, God was manifested in the flesh, seen and conversed with by all ranks and degrees of men, high and low, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, Pharisees and Sadducees, publicans and sinners. The accomplishment of this part of Isaiah's prophecy is exactly related by St. John the Evangelist, in the following terms; "The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."*

Thus we have seen under what character the Baptist is held forth to us in the predictions of the prophets concerning him, as one who should go before Messiah in the spirit and power of Elias, to proclaim and prepare the way for the advent of God incarnate. How perfectly, during the course of his ministry, he filled up this character, will appear in the subsequent sections,

viour, who is ever willing to succour the afflicted, and strengthen the weak, Lord, I come as a poor unworthy worm into thy presence, to beg for more faith to rely on thy sacred promises. Inspire me with a holy confidence in thy word, so that in all my trials I may look to thee, and under every distress depend upon thy unbounded goodness; thou art an unlimited God, and in thee dwells an everlasting fulness of grace, for the comfort of thy unworthy children; why then should I be for limiting thee; yea, why are my thoughts so narrow, my conceptions so small, of thy glorious self? Lord, enlarge my scanty ideas, give me greater views of thy compas sion, love, and kindness to thy people, Q, thou faithful Jesus, in mercy remember my unfaithful heart; wean me from trusting in myself, and teach me to trust in thee, and thee alone. May every care, circumstance, and trouble, be referred to thy hands. Bless me with that sweet grace of faith, let it attend all my steps, accompany me wherever I go, be with me in whatever I undertake; let it be my companion in every situation through life. I ask it of thee; O demy me not if it he thy gracious will, Then shall even the thorny path be made easy, and mountains become plains, while with this glass I look be yond the transitory scenes below, to the wide fields of everlasting glory, and comfort myself with the thought, that every step brings me nearer to this long wished for rest.

BUCK,