hence to be hoped for by the faithful by slow degrees only. But in this relation to external things, we find in the New Testament a twofold modification of the idea. Firstly, the circle of life within which reigns the element of Christ, (the church) is taken. in its visible manifestation as an external communion. In this view the Basisía . . itself appears as being about to come, as developing itself gradually in this sinful world, being as yet in a relative commixture with the elements of sin. (Comp. on Matth. xiii. 47 sqq.) For, only in the person of the Redeemer himself, the Bariksia manifests itself as perfect both externally and internally. Secondly, the external is conceived as being made homogeneous with the internal, and as being equally penetrated by the all-ruling will of God, and in this respect the Backsia appears as an absolutely perfected but future one. That which must become mighty only in the spiritual world, is ultimately represented as predominant even in the ríos, "creature" [Rom. viii. 19 sqq.] In this view the Basinia, "kingdom," might be called an iiyos, "earthly," (the counterpart of rougámos, "heavenly," 2 Tim. iv. 18), meanwhile, however, this appellative is, for good and sufficient reasons, not found; but the idea itself is found everywhere throughout the New Testament, in the promise made that in the Tagovaia, "advent," the kingdom of God shall become externally predominant. (Comp. on Matth. xx. 21; xxvi. 29; Luke xxi. 31; John xviii. 36). Meanwhile, in very many places, the internal and external parts are, as in the Old Testament, not clearly defined, but are commingled in a manner of great generality and vagueness. The Bastia then becomes the ideal world to come. (Comp. Luke xxiii. 42, the words of the one malefactor,) which, as present to the souls of believers, and as absent from the mass of mankind, may hence be said to be both present and absent at one and the same time. Another distinction, in like manner, unknown in the Old Testament, in the idea of the kingdom of God, is the reference which it has in the New Testament, at one time to a single individual, and at another to the totality of the human race. According to these different views, the Badia is thus represented both as having come, and as being about to come. For, in as far as the spiritual element that, together with Christ, penetrates mankind, and establishes in it the kingdom of God, has seized an individual, in so far does the kingdom of God exist in him, and he in the kingdom of God; but the idea of its being to come applies

likewise to such an individual, not only in so far as the elements of this higher life gradually take possession of all his powers, but likewise in so far as the principle existing in him will be that of the totality, and will be received thereby independent of him. Similar to the former is the relation of the community (conceived as a greater individuality); for, although the kingdom of God (in the church) is in it, and it (through the faithful, as the representatives of the mass) in the kingdom of God, yet is the kingdom of God likewise for it to come.

Hence the one idea of the kingdom of God appears, in the New Testament only, to be applied in various senses, and according to existing contrasts, at one time the one, and at another the other of the senses are rendered more prominent. Among the great mass of the Jews enslaved by Pharisaism, the conception of the external appearance of the Messiah's kingdom predominated; in opposition to this materialist view, our Redeemer brought forward the ideal part of the βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ, “ kingdom of God.” Even during the apostolic period were developed the germs of gnostic idealism, by which is denied the future external and real manifestation of the dominion of the divine one, as promulgated in the doctrine of the Basisia; hence it was that the latter had to be protected against the inroads of the former. The rude chiliasm of the ancient church had to be met at a subsequent period by the ideal view of the kingdom of God, as propagated by the adherents of the Alexandrian church, and owing to its influence, the idea of its being in the nature of Divine things to penetrate and rule the external through the internal, the individual as well as the total, was gradually forced into the background. The true biblical realism points out the via media, or safe middle path, which exists between the two by-ways of materialism and spiritualism in the doctrine of the Basía, it is not ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, “ of this world,” but it is ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, "in the world" (John xviii. 36); and as it developes itself in the individual upon whom it takes hold from the most internal source of life outwards even to the sanctification and glorification of the body, so likewise it gradually transfers itself from those individuals who represent individually the kingdom of God, to the totality of the human race, and transforms not only the earth to a state of paradisaical purity, but finally perfects the whole universe, producing a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter iii. 13; Revel. xxi. 1).

Finally, let us cast a glance at the passage here treated of (Matth. iii. 2), and let us inquire in what sense St John the Baptist may have regarded the Baoiλsía, as it will appear most probable that he received it, owing to his position under the law, in the general and vague sense of the Old Testament, perhaps even with a certain predominance of the external view, yet without adding any false notions to the idea itself. For we may always admit of a certain relation existing between the imaginations of St John and the prevailing national views concerning the kingdom of the Messiah; the belief that the kingdom of God would present itself as an external kingdom, was in itself not at all false, it rather implied in a direct manner its fulfilment. But the thing really false was, that men expected and wished for the external without the addition of the internal. Hence, as carnal man creates for himself a carnal god according to his own liking, in like manner does he create a like kingdom of God, whereas the spiritual man has a spiritual God and a spiritual kingdom of God; and as the true God became man, so in like manner the kingdom of God, or of heaven, becomes an earthly one, in order that heaven and earth may celebrate a complete reconciliation.

Matth. iii. 3. The manifestation of the Baptist is proved by the Evangelists from passages taken from the Old Testament, as willed by God. All the Evangelists (comp. John i. 23) quote the passage of Isaiah xl. 3-5. St Luke has given it in the most complete manner; like the two others, he follows the Septuagint, only with few deviations. St Mark adds also Mal. iii. 1;' but this passage seems to have occurred to his mind as being parallel during the period in which he wrote, for he partly cites it (from memory) with strong deviations from the Septuagint, and partly has he also copied the formula: ¿ 'Hoata rỹ πgoch, “in Isaiah the prophet," to the passage from Malachi. Transcribers have, no doubt, converted these words into v rois gophras, "in the prophets;" but that this reading is without any authority requires no proof. This passage of St Mark is a sign not to be mistaken that he had documents before him, and that he made use of them; he adopted the formula of citation

1 Comp. to the passage Mal. iii. 1, moreover, the remarks on Matth. xi. 10; Luke vii. 27, where the same citation is mentioned with similar deviations, which evidently leads to the supposition that the same sources were made use of.

from St Matthew and St Luke, but added from memory, without changing the formula, the words of Malachi. Besides, the whole prophetic passage is based on the image or figure of the entrance of a king for whom the ways are prepared. In so far as the king and his kingdom are spiritual, the heights and depths must be conceived in a spiritual manner, and must be applied to the frames and tempers of mind of unbelief and faintheartedness, of pride and self-conceitedness, which should impede the ministry of Christ. The term pwv, "voice," forms an interesting contrast with the 2670s, word of John i. 1. In the notion of the word the idea is contained at the same time which involves the articulated word; the voice denotes as such the notion of awakening, stirring. St John brought no new idea into the world of man, he ruled over no peculiar province of life into which he might have transposed mankind; he was a mere organ to effect a mighty spiritual revolution in the spiritual wilderness of mankind; he awakened the necessity which the Redeemer appeased. (The pάgays, “precipice," of Luke iii. 5, 6, is rápgos, "trench, valley;" in the New Testament it is only to be found in this place. The counterpart of it is Bouvós, a “hill or rising ground," and "gos, "a mountain." The former expression, Bouvós, is also met with Luke xxiii. 30. The Septuagint uses it for "elevation, hill." On our grov rou sou," the salvation of God," comp. Luke ii. 30; Acts of the Apostles xxviii. 28. Zwrngía, used similarly, we find Luke i. 69. In the concluding formula, öferaι Tãoα σágğ x. . ., "all flesh shall behold," the Evangelist ὄψεται πᾶσα σάρξ κ. τ. follows the Septuagint against or notwithstanding the Hebrew text, wherein is wanting the expression owrýgiov 7. 0., “the salvation of God.” The words ὀφθήσεται δόξα τοῦ κυρίου, "the glory of the Lord shall be seen," on the other hand, which we find in the Septuagint according to the original text, have been omitted by St Luke. Besides, the ministry of the Redeemer is represented in the prophecy in its completion, agreeing in every respect with the dominant views of the Old Testament.)

Ver. 4-6. The raiment and manner of life of the Baptist corresponds quite with the picture given of Elijah the Tishbite

1 The supposition of Hengstenberg (Christol. vol. iii. p. 398 sqq.; 464 sqq.), that St Mark used the passage of Malachi as one belonging to Isaiah, because the former had borrowed it from the latter, and hence that Malachi is but the auctor secundarius, appears to me as being forced, for the words remain after all those of Malachi.

(2 Kings i. 8; comp. Zech. xiii. 4); St John lived and acted in a rude and severe ascetic manner. ('Angs is the great wellknown eastern locust, a food of the poor, Levit. xi. 22.) By this very strict form of his life, and by the rebuking earnestness of his character, the prophet awakened the slumbering; it appeared as though an apparition of former ages had appeared in the present time so destitute of the spirit. The pan Bouvros, "the voice of one crying," resounded mightily throughout the wilderness; those that had been awakened collected around the prophet, in order to ease their conscience. The Barrioμós, “baptism, as well as the ἐξομολόγησις, confession," are noticed as the forms under which the ministry of St John represented itself. The confession must be conceived as a condition of baptism, inasmuch as the latter was to be, as it were, a type of the forgiveness of sin which would be fulfilled by the coming Messiah, which required a pure Távora, "repentance." Therefore, μετάνοια, wherever the confession was wanting, there the baptism had no effect (comp. ver. 7 sqq. containing the reprehension of the Pharisees). But the confession was not required as an especial confession of solitary deeds (although this cannot be excluded in individual cases), it was rather to be a pure expression and announcement of the necessity, which was as such recognisable to the prophetic and searching spirit of St John.

Ver. 7. What St Luke comprises in the expression "or, people" (excluding the few honest-minded), is expressed in a more definite manner by St Matthew by pagirao, "Pharisees," and saddouzaio, "Sadducees." These Jewish sects, so well-known Σαδδουκαίοι, in ecclesiastical history, appear in the New Testament as the representatives of hypocritical superstition and of carnal unbelief. Pharisaism had nevertheless a deeper foundation; it rested on the basis of the word of God, with which had been joined mere traditional precepts. Hence, although the Pharisees, regarded as a body, are always attacked in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, inasmuch as they had fallen into hypocrisy, and made a profession of godliness in consequence of their confounding the external with the internal, still there were always found among them individual believers. But Sadduceism was without any deep and true foundation, or any element of a more exalted life; in it we behold represented pure worldliness, which nevertheless frequently seems to be united with a degree of good intention. IIence this order was of little importance,