of by the prophet Esaias, say- ing, The voice of one crying in v Is.40.3. throne. 1 Kings 2. 4; 8. 25. Jer. 33. 17. By the kingdom of heaven, is meant the gospel dispensation as the kingdom of Christ upon earth. It was now no longer distant, as it had been to prophets, but at hand, and very near. It was to be established in the death and resurrection of Christ. John was its immediate forerunner, to announce its coming; and so it was to be immediately expected. That kingdom is now set up. Since John's time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man (of all nations) presseth into it (Luke 16. 16). "For from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11. 12). They who urgently press into it, and earnestly lay hold of its benefits, are true Christians, and only they belong to it. "The word is nigh thee." Rom. 10. 8. The gospel of the kingdom is now preached. This kingdom, though set up, and proclaimed, and already come in its plans and offers, has not yet fully come in its results. So we are to pray, poses, and course of life. The other is remorse. Judas repented in the last sense. It was "the sorrow of the world that worketh death." No anguish of feeling is anything, save as leading to Christ and to a change of life. And a hearty change implies substantial sorrow for past impenitence and depravity. Every one should repent because he has a wicked nature because he has lived wickedly; and because forgiveness is proclaimed to sinners in Christ; while Christ himself, the Saviour and Judge, is at hand. And there is no valuable sign of true repentance apart from a thorough reform of character and conduct. Repentance is not the ground of forgiveness. Yet sinners should repent of their sins if they would obtain forgiveness, because this is most fit and requisite, that the renunciation and confession of sin should go before the assurance of forgiveness, even as John the Baptist's work goes before Christ's. Though the forgiveness is proclaimed freely, and the goodness of God is urged as an incentive to repentance, yet only they who repent of sin can enjoy a sense of pardon, or know the meaning of forgiveness for themselves; and only they are actually forgiven. So, wise parents require of their children re- 3. This is he. Esaias (called Isaiah pentance. Yet often the parent's wil- in the Old Testament or Hebrew lingness to forgive freely, is that which tongue, this being the Greek) had provokes the heartiest repentance in spoken of John distinctly, though not the child. There is nothing in a sin- by name. It was more than seven ner's repentance which obligates God hundred years before John's time that to forgive. It does not take away sin. Isaiah prophesied. Here is another Neither is it because he repents, but instance of a prophecy, referring just because Christ has died, that he is for- as truly to an event far subsequent as given. Hence, the message is, "Re- to the one nearer at hand. Though pent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is the passage in Isaiah (40. 3) referred at hand. John preached the baptism more immediately to the deliverance of repentance, (for) in reference to the and return of the Jews from the Babyremission of sins by Christ, who was lonish captivity, yet the fuller apat hand. Mark 1. 4. The coming of plication was to this greater event. Christ is so spoken of, because this And the subjects of the prophecy were was what the prophets had pointed to. kindred in themselves. The chosen (Dan. 7. 13, 14.) David the king was people coming out of that captivity to have a son and successor greater which so represented the bondage of than Solomon, to sit forever on his sin; and the same covenant people Thy kingdom come," "that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened."-Shorter Catechism. coming out now from that legal dispensation "which gendercth to bondage." Galatians. Hence both events could bear to be couched under the same prophetic language. We learn now, from this evangelist, that John was he whom the prophet announced, though then the prophecy seemed to apply only to the events more immediately at hand. The Lord, of whose coming John gave notice, was Christ himself. The prophet Isaiah seemed to hear the voice of the wilderness preacher. Prepare ye the way. This is an image drawn from Eastern customs. Monarchs on a march sent a herald before them, to prepare their way, to have their path levelled and straightened, and to announce their coming. John preached this preparation of Christ's way, as he was to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to the fathers, lest He come and smite the earth with a curse" (Mal. 4. 6). He stirred up the people to expect Him "suddenly," Mal. 3. 1, and he called for a removal of all obstructions out of the way of His coming. He made His paths straight, as he notified them of the nature of His reign, so different from that which they had thought; and he exhorted them to make ready for His direct ministry of grace among them. 4. Camel's hair. John's clothing is here described as an expressive symbol of his work. To the Jews all this mode of living in the wilderness, and with coarsest clothes, strikingly indicated his work of preaching repentance. So the prophets wore this clothing (2 Kings 1. 8. Zech. 13. 4). So Christ intimates (Matt. 11. 8), "They that wear soft clothing are in king's houses." This camel's hair was woven into a coarse fabric, and served for clothing to the poorer leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and x Le.11.22. classes. As a kind of sackcloth, it was the garb of mourning and penitence. John comes forward, therefore, as repentance personified. "In that which he does, he shows the people what they should do."—Hengstenberg. As he was "the Elias which was to come," reference is also made to the garb of the prophet Elijah, whose work he represents. See 1 Kings 21. 27, where Ahab copies the repentance which the prophet set before him. See also 2 Kings 1. 8, "He (Elijah) was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins." His meat (or food) was locusts, Levit. 11. 22, which the Jews were expressly allowed to eat. This was the coarsest fare, and all in keeping. It was significant of his work. The prophet Elijah was fed by ravens. The Saviour represents this fare of John as a continual fasting, Matt. 11. 18, John came neither eating nor drinking." Locusts were eaten by the poor, mostly without much preparation, roasted and taken with salt. See Union Bib. Dictionary.- - Wild honey. This was either taken from rocks and stumps of trees, or it was such as is sometimes found in the East, collecting on the foliage of a honey tree, of which we are told, 1 Sam. 14. 25, 26, and 27, and flows profusely. Locusts might sometimes fail. This was a food belonging to a wild and waste region. See Isa. 7. 15. 5. Jerusalem, &c. A great multitude thronged to receive John's baptism. The inhabitants of Jerusalem in large numbers, and crowds from different parts of Judea, and all about the river and valley of Jordan, attended upon his preaching, and received his ordinance. Many had such expectations of Christ's coming, and so remembered what was declared by their last prophet, of the herald, all the region round about Jordan, and of his preparatory work, that they went out to him at once. Many others had been drawn after him by the novelty of his dress and of his doctrine. So Christ intimates in Matt. 11. 7, when "He inquired of the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out for to see?" 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. y Ac.1.5; 2.38; 19.4,5,18. sixty miles in length, and from five to ten miles in breadth. 6. Were baptized. This ordinance had formerly been in use among the Jews. It was known as an initiatory rite. Proselytes to the Jewish religion were received in this way. Hence, they understood the ordinance Jerusalem. The capital of the king- as signifying an espousal of a new dom of Judah; called also Salem, religion, and so it was a mode of pubGen. 14. 18 and Ps. 76. 2; and Jebus, lic profession. More or less the outfrom the Jebusites, who held it before ward rite involved the idea of cleansit was possessed by Israel (Josh. 18. ing. The use of water had this sig28). The name means, "habitation nificance. In the Christian church it or inheritance of peace." The city is plainly symbolical of the Spirit's was built on four principal hills: agency, and of this Divine influence B zetha, on the north; Moriah, on the graciously imparted from above. "Exeast; Zion, on the south; Acra, on the cept a man be born again" (margin, west. Across the valley or ravine, from above). "Then will I sprinkle by which Moriah was separated from clean water upon you, and ye shall be Zion, a bridge was built, for easier clean." Ezek. 36. 25. The word bapaccess to the temple, which stood on tize, is the Greek term baptizo, not Mount Moriah. "The mountains translated, but transferred to our lanround about Jerusalem" were highest guage. Therefore it tells nothing of Two on the east, where lay the Mount of the mode. Observe the terms. Olives, commanding the finest view elements are mentioned in the New of the city, and from which our Lord Testament baptizing, viz., water, and beheld it and wept. The temple was the Holy Ghost. "I indeed baptize on that side; and the valley separa- you with water, but He shall baptize From ting Moriah from Olivet was the val- you with the Holy Ghost." ley of the Kedron; and there, at the knowing of the mode in the use of foot of Mount Olivet, across the brook one of these elements, we may infer from the city, was the garden of Geth- the mode in the use of the other. The semane. The valley of Jehoshaphat baptizing with the Holy Ghost is elselies along the south-east, and the val- where spoken of, as by the Spirit's beley of Hinnom toward the south- ing poured out-"Until the Spirit be west, separating the city respectively poured upon us from on high." Isa. from the "Hill of Offence" and the 32. 15. I will pour out my Spirit "Hill of Evil Counsel." See Plate. upon you." Prov. 1.23. "I will pour The circumference of the ancient out my Spirit upon all flesh." Joel 2. city was nearly three and a half geo- 28. Zech. 12. 10. Or its being sent"I will send the Comforter." Or its graphical miles. The circumference of the present walls does not ex- descending-as at Christ's baptism, ceed two and a half-though Mount where the sign and thing signified Zion is now unenclosed, and a por-met-"The Holy Ghost descended tion also at the north. The popula- like a dove and rested upon Him." tion is estimated most correctly at fif- Or its being sprinkled upon the person. "So shall He sprinkle teen thousand.- -T Jordan. The only Ezek. 36. 25. river of any note in Palestine, gives many nations." Isa. 52. 15. And rain the name to a broad valley through was a common emblem of it in the Old Testament. Hence, we conclude, which it flows. This valley is some 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto z Is.59.5. c. 12.34; 23.33. Lu.3.7. that the baptizing with water is by its descent, outpouring, sprinkling upon the person. The doctrine of the ordinance requires it to be administered, not by applying the person to the water, but the water to the person. This is the symbolical purport. The element denotes, not the atoning, but the cleansing influence. It is the water, not the blood. And renewing grace is to be received only at the Sovereign hand of God. And the children of God are described in the Revelation, as having His name in their foreheads. It may here be mentioned, that the word baptisterium, from which the term baptistery is had, signifies, "not a bath sufficiently large to immerse the whole body, but a vessel or labrum containing water for pouring over the head (Plin. Ep. 6). See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. John's baptism was not fully the same as that in the Christian church; for some of John's disciples were re-baptized. Acts ch. 19. And the commission for the Christian church, was to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28. 19. (See notes on verse 11.)-T Confessing their sins. In the baptism of repentance (says Bengel) they confessed their sins. In the baptism of Christ they confessed Christ. John preached repentance; and they who received his baptism owned their sinfulness, and professed a change of mind and conduct. They put off former things, and gave an indication, and admitted a sign, of newness of life. This confession was open and free, as the term in Greek impliesnot private and auricular, and not constrained, but voluntary. Yet all this looked toward Christ," in whom we have forgiveness of sins." "Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God."Shorter Catechism. "All unrighteous "Sin is a ness is sin." 1 John 5. 17. transgression of the law." 1 John 3. 4. And where persons of riper years receive baptism (and to such, of course, the ordinance was first offered), they should sincerely acknowledge past sin, with purposes and promises of a new life. The following verses show that this was John's view of it. 7. The PHARISEES were a powerful religious sect, of predominant influence in the Jewish state. They were the recognized teachers, proud of their legal knowledge, and boasting a superior sanctity; outwardly practising austerities, but inwardly indulging the worst passions. They believed in the resurrection, and in angels good and bad, as the Sadducees did not. Acts 23. 8. They held also to a divine government of fate, and they claimed favour of God, on the ground of descent from Abraham. They observed the strictest letter of the Mosaic law; and besides held to various traditions (ch. 15. 2), washed themselves religiously before meals, fasted twice a week, on Thursdays and Mondays (see ch. 9. 14, and ch. 23. 15, 23), made much of vestments and of sacred appendages (ch. 6. 1, ch. 23. 3, 24), but were hypocritical (ch. 23. 14, 27, &c.), narrow-minded. selfish, bigoted, and vain, fond of pleasures and lax in morals (ch. 5. 20, ch. 15. 4, 8, ch. 23. 3, 14, 23, 25). And a religion such as theirs, was declared by our Lord wholly worthless for admittance to heaven (Matt. 5. 20). Their name is from the Hebrew word, pharash, which means, to separate; and these, and such as "these, are they that separate themselves, having not the Spirit." Jude v. 19. Josephus says they were akin to the Stoics among the Greeks (Vita Joseph., 2). See Matt. 9. 11, and 23. 5, 15, 29. The SADDUCEES were fewer, but more wealthy, and of higher rank, yet had no influence with the multitude. 8 Bring forth therefore fruits 1| you, that God is able of these meet for repentance: children unto 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto 1 Or, answerable to amendment of life. They were bitter opposers of Christ, and denied the immortality of the soul, and all the doctrines of another life (Acts 23. 8). This being the character of these sects, John was surprised at their coming to his baptism. Hence he calls them by a name descriptive of their real disposition, "A generation of vipers," Isa. 14. 29, rather than the generation of faithful Abraham, which they claimed to be. A viper was a venomous serpent. And so they were children of the old serpent (Rev. 12. 9), who is the devil, "the father of lies." Cunning and poisonous with their doctrines, and ready to dart their malicious venom at everything good. --¶The wrath to come. He preached the wrath of God to come upon the wicked (2 Thess. 1. 10, 11). He alludes to Malachi 4. 6, as the wrath expected. Their coming to him, looked like a disposition to flee from that wrath, by receiving the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Observe, it was not a mere water baptism that John preached, but one which implied a fleeing from the wrath to come upon sin, by taking the warning of repentance. And sinners are saved from the wrath to come, not by any baptism of water, but by fleeing for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. 8. Fruits. He tells them, therefore, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance; that is, to begin with their conduct and principles, in a way appropriate to repentance, and to show in their lives the appropriate results of such a change. And as fruit is the best evidence of the nature and quality of a tree, so they should thus best evince their sincerity. Repentance, is a change of mind which is best proved by turning away from sin and Satan to God. 9. Abraham to our father. The Jews stones to raise up Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: boasted in Abraham. They were his descendants according to the flesh, and he was "the friend of God," and the covenant was to him and to his seed. So these boasted in their mere hereditary descent, as a sufficient righteousness before God. But "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." He is not confined to nations, or to means, or to a law of succession in the church. They should not think that He was confined to Abraham's natural seed. The true succession now, is that of true piety; and Abraham's true children are such as God has raised up and created anew. (See John 8. 39.) If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3. 29). God can, and will, gather a chosen people from the Gentiles, which the Jews thought to be quite as impossible as that He should make church members out of stones. They mistook and perverted the Abrahamic covenant, which was to be of permanent force in the church, and which now includes, with believing parents, their infant offspring. But we cannot be saved, if we continue in sin, even though our parents be pious. 10. And now. This is the doctrinethat the time had come for getting at the root of things. Men's hearts should be laid open, and so they should be judged, and not according to the mere outward appearance. John notifies them of this new state of things. They were to be treated as trees are by the woodman.--T Unto the root. The axe laid unto the root, denotes that every thing is ready now for cutting down such as are heartless and fruitless. That the trial shall be of the heart and life. Men cannot hope any longer to stand upon a mere profession, or external relation, or upon |