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SECT.V. people. Thefe alfo were importunate with St. John, faying, " And what shall "we do? And he faid unto them, "Exact no more than that which is

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appointed you." The reflections of the writer above-cited, upon this cafe of the publicans, and the following one of the foldiers, are fo extremely senfible, judicious, and pertinent, that the reader will have an obligation to me, for presenting him with them, nearly as I find them. "A wife preacher, like St. John, fhould diftinguish the abuses of any ftate or condition of life from the condition itself; he should be so far from disturbing either the peace of private confciences, or the public repose, by condemning neceffary employments, that he ought carefully to promote both, by contenting himself with only retrenching the diforders and injuftice. of those who exercife them. To be exact in not permitting any abuses in employments of this nature, is to ferve the state and thofe loofe cafuifts, who allow and authorize them, are pernicious to governments, by rendering these employments odious to the people,

by

by favouring their murmurings, by en- SECT.V. couraging acts of injuftice, and thereby giving occafion to rebellion and revolt. :

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"And the foldiers demanded of him, faying, And what shall we do? And " he said unto them, Do violence to no "man, neither accufe any falfely, and "be content with your wages." St. John here, in the last place, regulates the duties of military perfons, and shews, that no condition is excluded from fal→ vation. The business of war is not in itself at all oppofite thereto; fince there have been not only chriftian foldiers, but even great faints and generous martyrs of that profeffion. If all war was contrary to the gospel, St. John would not have allowed those who prefented themfelves before him to continue in that ftate. However it is certainly full of obftacles to falvation, which very few furmount. A ftate, which is generally embraced either out of paffion, or libertinifm, or through a blind deftination of birth, the exercifes whereof are fo violent and tumultuous, agrees but little with the exercises of chriftianity, or the spirit of the gospel, which is all

peace,

SECT.V. peace, charity, and meeknefs. It is

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notwithstanding juft and neceffary, that there should be men to defend the state; but it is still more juft and necessary, that this should not be done at the expence of falvation. The grace of God can do every thing: this is what ought to comfort thofe who intend to ferve him in ferving 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 difpofitions very different from, and oppofite to each other. Jews and Gentiles, Pharifees and Publicans, Sadducees and Soldiers, all confess their fins, and participate of the fame baptism, all ftruck with apprehenfions of fome impending evil, all flying from the wrath to come, forgetting their mutual hoftilities 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 it's accomplishment, the publicans, who, before the preaching of John, were ravenous. as evening "wolves," became as in

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nocent

nocent as the "lamb." The foldiers, SECT. V. who had been formerly fierce and cruel as the "lion," became tame and tractable as the "ox," and fubmitted their necks to the yoke of the gospel. Such of the Pharifees likewife, who, before their baptifm, had been venomous as the

afp," or "cockatrice," did, by the worthy receiving of this baptifm, and the grace which God gave them, become mild and gentle as the " fucking "infant," or "weaned child"."

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THE: Concord: thus produced in Judea by the fermons of St. John, and the tranquillity which the whole earth then enjoyed, fitting quiet as it were in expectation of her Lord, betokened the manifeftation of the Prince of peace. Then cometh Jefus from Galilee to

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"Jordan to John, to be baptized of "him"." After thirty years past in retirement at: Nazareth, the bleffed Jefus was now to break forth, like the fun from a cloud, or a ftream from the bowels of the earth, to enlighten man

* See the Works of Dr. Thomas Jackson, ii. 5 22.

Matt: iii. 13, &c.

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kind

SECT.V. kind by his doctrine, and refresh them

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with the influences of his grace. The mighty concourfe of all ranks and degrees of people attending St. John at the river Jordan, rendered that the fittest place where he might first shew himself to the world. He who knew no fin, but was to take away the fins of all other men, prefented himself in the erowd of finners, as one of them, and folicited" the baptifm of repentance," not that water might fanctify him, but that he might "fanctify water to the "mystical washing away of fin."

CONFOUNDED at the thought of the Mafter being baptized by the fervant, St. John at first" forbad him, saying, I "have need to be baptized of thee, and "comest thou to me? And Jefus an"fwering faid unto him, Suffer it to be "fo now, for thus it becometh us to " fulfil all righteousness. Then he suf"fered him." Jefus Chrift, as condefcending to ftand charged with our fins, and, to that end, being "made "under the law," was to fulfil the

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righteousnefs" of the law, as it con

a Gal. iv. 4.

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