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 Jeru"salem," 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 shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

b"Far from being the Messiah, or Elias, or one of the old prophets, I am nothing but a voICE; a sound, that, as soon as it has expressed the thought of which it is the sign, dies into "air, and is known no more." FENELON.

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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 unanimity 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.

SECTION V.

Considerations on the Appearance, Doctrine, and Baptism of St. John.

THE days of St. John's retirement were now ended, and he was to exchange the pleasures of contemplation for the far different scenes of an active life; to behold, with grief and indignation, the sins and follies of mankind, the sight of which must needs be more grating and afflicting to his righteous soul, than a garment of camel's hair could be to his body; to encounter the opposition of a world that would be

© John, i. 14.

sure to take arms against him, from the moment in which he stood forth a preacher of repentance and reformation. But no good could be done to others in solitude, no converts could be made in the deserts; and he must therefore quit even the most refined and exalted of intellectual enjoyments, as every minister of Christ should be ready to do, when charity dictates an attendance on the necessities of his fellow-creatures.

Yet let it be observed, that St. John was thirty years of age, when "the word of God came to him "in the wilderness "," and commissioned him to enter upon his ministry; and the holy Jesus likewise was of the same age, when inaugurated to his office by the visible descent of the Spirit upon him at his baptism to intimate, perhaps, that neither the exigencies of mankind, nor a consciousness of abilities for the work, can be pleaded as a sufficient warrant for a man to run before he is sent, and take the sacred office upon himself, without a regular and lawful call. The institutions of God are not without a reason; and he will not be served by the breach of his commandments.

The place to which the Baptist first repaired is styled "the wilderness of Judea," a country not

like the vast and uninhabited deserts in which he was educated, but one thinly peopled, a comparative wilderness, chosen by him on account of its bordering on the river. Hither the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities and villages presently flocked in great

Luke, iii. 2.

e Matt. iii. 1. Luke, iii. 3.

numbers, attracted by the uncommon sanctity of the new preacher, who thus came forth, on a sudden, from the deserts, like one from another world, without any connexions in this, that no attachment might take him off from the duties of his high calling, or any way impede him in the exercise of it; since a man's worst foes have often been those of his own household, and the ties of flesh and blood have been known to prevail, where tyrants have threatened and inflicted tortures without effect. And as there is nothing so directly opposite to the profession of a prophet, nothing which so soon or so effectually sullies his reputation, as a tendency to indulgence and sensuality; in him, who was "more 'than a pro"phet," we must expect to find a perfect crucifixion of the flesh, with its affections and lusts. "What

"went ye out in the wilderness to see? A man "clothed in soft raiment? No, the very reverse; a man, like his predecessor Elijah, coarsely attired ; "his raiment of camel's hair, with a leathern girdle "about his loins ;" and content with the plainest food that nature could provide for him; "his meat "locusts and wild honey";" a man, whose person, habit, and manner of life, were themselves a sermon, and the best illustration of the doctrine he was about to teach; a proper person to prepare the way for Christ, and introduce the law to the Gospel; to show men what effect the one ought to have upon them, in order to dispose them for the blessings of the other; that mercy might save from the wrath

f Matt. xi. 9.

* Ibid. xi. 8.

h Ibid. iii. 4.