from the beginning! Who is prepared for this consequence?

Let us now for one moment con

sider the extreme simplicity, the unprofitableness, the ignorance, the various diminishing properties, and the legion of imperfections, confounded with better qualities, in the persons of some, whose genuine piety, in the main, no candid and competent judge could doubt, unless tempted to it for the sake of carrying a point or propping a theory then say that such an one, and the lowest of such, is greater than John, and greater than all that pre

ceded him!

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We have no desire to name the many commentators, some of them of the greatest comparative respectability, who have adopted this miserable view; and, by dint of careering, glossing, concealing, and evading the strict rules of exegesis, (and this, no doubt, without all deliberate wrong,) have thrown guise of speciosity and verisimilitude around their own monstrous creation but, it may well be questioned whether a more untenable, extravagant, and absurd position, on a subject somewhat abstract and very important, ever obtained the sanction of great names, and abused the confidence of small ones. Dr. Campbell, however, deserves reprehension for a license, in which, confounding the office of translator with that of commentator, or rather commixing them, he renders the Greek or by the English future shall be, that is "the least in the kingdom of heaven shall be greater than he." Here he assumes the view we oppose, and alters the text to indicate what should (and hitherto never has!) come to pass in the gospel dispensation. Our own translation is faithful to the original, and perfectly correct. We now proceed to evince what seems the only genuine and the richly excellent meaning of the passage. We shall first give the

view, and then attempt its vindication as the only correct one.

John the Baptist is here consid ered in his official character and relative magnificence alone; he is viewed as the herald and harbinger of Messiah, a position of grandeur and a station of eminence which ke occupies alone-of which he possesses the sublime and envied monopoly, as one "greater than a prophet;" his personal character, his gifts as a man, his piety as a Christian, his competency as a preacher, are wholly pretermitted and excluded for the time; while his transcendent, and peculiar, and solitary greatness, as related to Messiah, to prophecy, and to the church in many ages, is alone respected: now, in this view, he might be ENVIED among his brethren, or OVERRATED and even IDOLIZED by them and others; but, says Christ, TO BE A REAL CHRISTIAN, yea to be "the least" of the whole flock of the Redeemer, to be the least in the kingdom of heaven," is nobler, better, greater, and infinitely more to be desired, than to possess all the official and relative magnificence of John, or of any other dignitary that ever figured among men: more excellent than all the collective glory of office and of station in the world.

In support of this view we submit the following considerations :not aware that the same view is contained in any extant commentary or printed work of whatsoever description.

1. Its intrinsic truth, importance, and applicableness to Christians and men of all ranks and ages. That the sentiment is true and salutary, will not, we think, be denied by any Christian, whether he accredits it as the right interpretation of the passage in question or not. To be a Christian-is moral excellence; is infinite opulence; is permanent, unfading bliss; is wisdom, peace, and blessedness; is assured preservation and infallible

safety; is participation of "the divine nature," and communion with the ever blessed God, through his Son Jesus Christ; is certain destination to glory, and present possession of "eternal life;" is immortality beatified forever!-forever ?-forever?-forever ?-great God! what meaneth this! Thine own glory, and thine alone, is brighter! Thou alone canst comprehend that good unspeakable and unthinkable which is realized to them that love thee!

And what is there for us in creation, conceivably equal, or for a moment to be compared to the infinite blessedness, and infinite magnificence of the Christian? John might have been officially and relatively all that he was, and illimitably more-and yet, if he had not been a Christian, if he had not been himself in the kingdom of heaven," he could never doubt in eternity, were it possible he could in time, that the meanest of the genuine worshippers of God was greater, befter, happier than he? "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

The moral tendency of any interpretation is no mean criterion of its claims. But what is the moral and spiritual tendency of the view we espouse? Is it not to exalt vital piety, personal religion, against all its most formidable enemies and rivals? Is it not to make us all think and feel that "a Christian is the highest style of man?" Is it not to throw the "vain pomp and glory of the world," and even the allied grandeur of the church, into concealment, subserviency and "dim eclipse," behind the surpassing excellence of" the least" of the company

" whom God delights in and in whom he dwells?"

Is it is not salutary to ministers of religion? Suppose them exalted, VOL. 1.-No. VIII. 51

prosperous, and envied, in all the relations of their awful functionit hints to the ear of conscience, how vapid this without more durable! to be a Christian, to be the humble ally and similar of the Son of God, to have a personal interest in the promises, and a peaceful consciousness of "acceptance in the Beloved," how much more excellent in itself and valuable to you than the wealth of Cardinal Woolsey, the canonized fame of Becket, the learning of Erasmus, the splendours of Leo X., or even the better greatness" of John the Baptist"

with nothing more! Be not dazzled then, be not dizzy with the trance or the fancy of those things which imply no moral excellence, and no exemption from the desolation of the curse of the law," swollen in its tide with the unequalled freshet of condemnation" from the gospel--the especial condemnation possibly of a self-seeking, worldly-minded, pompous hypocrite in robes of official sanctity!

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To Christians what does it say? It says, envy no man; pine not at your obscurity of sphere; live in the light of God's countenance and count his favor to be the supreme good.

All official greatness in the church is for the sake of pious greatness! is means to an end, scaffolding to a building, and service to sanctify. For the sake of the church all other things are made, upheld and providentially disposed. "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Appollos, or Cephas, [or John the Baptist,] or the world, life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and are Christ's; and Christ is God's."

ye

or

Again, what would be the condi tion of the world, or the church,

should the sentiment we advocate universally prevail? Answer: a condition of universal benevolence and salvation--or, in short, millennial blessedness! Ambition, jealousy, Diotrephean annoyance, "the insolence of office," feuds, fights, and every evil, would disappear, and genuine enduring goodness and enjoyment would overspread the earth! It would stimulate all the action, and "fill the ambition" of men, to be and to appear "great" as Christians. Then moral heroism, the arts and acts of pure philanthropy, the untold sublime of communicative goodness, would bless mankind, and spread the serenity and the fruitage of universal Eden through the world. That were "paradise that knows no forfeiture," that hides no lurking adversary and contains no interdicted tree!

2. We have one more general consideration to offer in vindication of our view of the passage at the head of this article: it is the perfect congruity and natural consent of that view with the scope of the whole context.

We have seen that the phrasc the kingdom of heaven is the pivot in every view upon which the meaning turns; while the general ambiguity of that phrase has occasioned all our obscurity and mistake. Our view supposes it here to express the state of the Christian, or genuine membership in the church of God; and so to be, in other words, as if he had said, a genuine worshipper, no matter in what age, is greater than all the official grandeur of John. Immediately after uttering this weighty sentiment, he addsand this shows the congruity of the subsequent context--" and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force." There can be no doubt of the meaning of the phrase in this verse it is as if wo should urge

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a sinner, in a time of revival, with the consideration, 'this is the time for you to repent and take the kingdom of heaven, or become a Christian.' Now, if such be its meaning in the twelfth verse, then such is its meaning in the eleventh; or, there is a strange variation of the same phrase in the same continuity of discourse, and in two proximate verses. Besides, there is a natural and practical advance of thought in the twelfth verse, which is suggested by the forceful sentiment in that which precedes it. If all men or any man soberly believed the former, such an one must be proportionately actuated in the way of the latter; if he thoroughly believed the sentiment, he would violently or vehemently put it in practice.

The context preceding from the beginning of the chapter is, we think, entirely in favour of our view. John was at the time confined by Herod Antipas in a prison of Galilee. Jesus seems to have tried his faith in that obscure and painful solitude by apparently neglecting to visit him: this, with other trials, was deeply troublous even to this heroic saint. His constancy seems to have forsaken him, while temptations thickened around him; and he even doubted whether or not Jesus was the Messiah! Hence he sends a deputation of two disciples to put the question directly to the Saviour and to bring him a speedy reply. The answer we all know; and those who have pondered it, have seen also something of its incomparable excellence. After they had departed, Jesus-who had "increased" as John had "decreased"

the

elegances had presented charm? Denying this, he asks, But what went ye out to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee." Then follows the passage, "verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John &c."

The relative and official glory of John is here obviously respected and not his personal saintship and private character. This glory consisted in his relation and proximity, to Messiah, as the herald of his wondrous way; in the actual moral service he was designated to perform, as the instrument of general rectification of manners and the index finger of the hand of God, pointing the inquisitiveness of the nation to their true Messiah; in the conspicuity of prophetic anticipation, (see Is. xl. 3. and Mal. iv. 5. 6.) and of the church's consequent expectancy, for seven hundred years; and in the necessary monopoly of all this peculiar magnificence; for, though as a mere prophet he was one of a numerous class, yet, as more than a prophet," as the morning star of the dawn of the perfect dispensation, and the harbinger of the rising of "the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings," he stood alone, his prophetic character was as solitary among prophets as the priesthood of Melchisedec was of its own "order" among priests, he had no similar before him, and could have none after him; and if "the Scripture saith not in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy," well might the Saviour administer the grand corrective or

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rather preventive sentiment that to be a christian is better than all the exterior glory of Creation!

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There is a case very parallel to this which may serve for a concluding illustration, at once of the consistency and the truth of the important view we have taken. certain woman of the company lifted up her voice" (Luke xi. 27.) and pronounced a blessing on his mother, according to the strong national feeling of her Jewish sex. "But he said, yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it :" as if he had said a Christian, even the least, is more blessed and more to be envied than is my mother, considered as such, with whatever relative glory, in human eyes, that circumstance may invest her. This sentiment is most appropriate against the dotage at once of Jewish mothers and of Roman christendom. How infatuated has been the veneration of millions, and hundreds of millions of nominal Christians, at the name, and the shrine, and the picture, and the image, of the "blessed virgin!" Tobe a Christian, says Christ, to "hear the word of God and keep it," is incomparably "more blessed." here he leaves the personal character and piety of his mother out of the account; and argues, as in the case of John, only from relative, nominal, recorded greatness as in the one case the piety of Mary is indubitable, and her excellency consisted in the fact that she was the disciple as well as the mother of the Messiah; so in the other the piety of John is indubitable and eminent, and his excellency consisted in being himself in the kingdom of heaven,-as without this it had still been "good" for him, as really as for Judas, “that he had never been born."

But

and

The subject is capable of much practical use and expansion. But we can only add (and how could we repress?) the reflections, that a