regarded themselves as leaders rather than followers, and treated those who differed from them with contempt;1 so that it was indeed a wonder to see them coming with the crowd. The Sadducees were another party, equally selfsufficient, puffed up with a notion of their superior wisdom, and so sceptical and profane. That these too should come with their rivals was a matter of surprise. The honest Baptist unmasks their hyprocrisy. He exposes their real motive in coming. Not penitence, but popularity, love of power, brought them to his Baptism, which after all, it appears, they did not, as a body, receive. In the energetic and unceremonious language of the period, he addresses them by a sort of proverbial title, applied to them later by our Lord, in allusion to their cunning in coming. Being not only directly commissioned, but also divinely inspired, he could boldly and to their face, accuse them of being, not, as they boasted, Abraham's seed, but the seed of the serpent, which was a deceiver from the beginning. Evil sons of evil sires, they were witnesses against themselves that they were the children of them that killed the prophets. Who had been able to persuade these, that took counsel with none, thus to flee from that wrath which was coming on Jerusalem? This was a thing hardly to be credited of those whose malice was so inveterate and ingrained.

XXXVI.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Matthew iii. 8-10.

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up childrenun to Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the

1 St. Luke xviii. 9; St. John vii. 49.

2 St. Luke vii. 29, 30.

3 St. Matt. xxiii. 33.

St. John viii. 39, 44.

root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

4

3

The holy Baptist proceeds to warn the Pharisees and Sadducees who professed to consult him, that if they would indeed escape that greater judgment, of which Jerusalem's overthrow was but a figure, they must not content themselves with the bare leaves of a religious profession, but bring forth real fruits of repentance. And, as checking the thought of their heart, and anticipating their line of self-defence," he tells them with authority that the fact of their carnal descent from Abraham, in which they trusted as an amulet against all evil, and of which they were evermore boasting, would avail them nothing in the sight of a spiritual God. Pointing it might be to the pebbles on the river's shore, where they were standing, he shows that God who made man at the first out of the dust of the ground, could raise up3 as many more such children of Abraham as He pleased. But it was not such He sought or valued. "They which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." And in a proverbial sentence, used again by our Lord," he warns these, whom he had bidden to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance," that otherwise their doom is near. "Behold the Judge standeth before the door." Even now is the axe laid at the root of the barren tree. There is but a step betwixt them and death. That which bears no fruit, or no good fruit, is plainly unprofitable, fit only for the fire. That vine which after all care and cultivation brings forth no grapes, or brings forth only wild grapes, is good for nothing but fuel; is rejected as the Jews were, and as we, if Christians in nothing but the name, shall be. What need therefore have we to pray, as in the language of one of our Post-Communion Collects founded upon this passage, that the words which we have heard with our out

8

St. Matt. xxi. 19; St. Luke xiii. 7; Ps. i. 3.

2 Compare the "think not" of v. 9 with the "begin not" of St. Luke iii. 8.

Here is possibly allusion to the Sadducæan denial of a resurrection.

There is possible reference to

Josh. iv. 9, and to the twelve Apostles, foundation stones of Christ's Church. St. Matt. vii. 19.

6 Notice the present tenses. The kingdom is begun. St. Luke xvi. 16; Acts xvii. 30.

St. John xv. 2, 6; Is. xxvii. 11. 8 Is. v. 1-14.

ward ears may, through God's grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honour and praise of His name.1

XXXVII.

THE BAPTIST REPLIES TO THE PEOPLE.

St. Luke iii. 10, 11.

And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

The Baptist seems by his faithful preaching not only to have won the People's ear, but to have really touched their hearts. They now advance a step beyond being hearers, and begin to become inquirers. The people who came in crowds 2 are moved enough to ask him "What shall we do then?" that is in order to flee from the coming wrath, and to bring forth these fruits of repentance. So we find the people afterwards, on the day of Pentecost, were "pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and Brethren, what shall we do?" So Saul of Tarsus, arrested by the grace of God on his way to Damascus, makes this first inquiry of a convinced sinner, of a contrite heart, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Here the people desire particular direction, and the Baptist gives answers to them all. They have so far profited by his preaching as to see that their descent from Abraham will not stand in the stead of personal piety. And the Baptist, knowing that, blinded by long habit, men may profess that they know God and yet in works deny Him,--knowing too the tendency to covetousness, the absence of a charitable disposition in his hearers,— gives them a test, as our Lord did to the young Ruler after2 So in the original.

1 Phil. i. 11,

wards. It is like the sentence adopted into the Offertory,2 "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" "He puts those who had superfluities upon contributing to the relief of those that had not necessaries." 3 He instances in the two most common cases where luxury or penury is chiefly exhibited, food and raiment; as our Lord afterwards, in contrasting the rich man and Lazarus, speaks of the former as clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day. The Baptist, as the Herald of the Gospel of Christ, does not remit his inquirers to the ceremonies of the Law of Moses. He shows that God requires mercy and not sacrifice.

XXXVIII.

THE BAPTIST REPLIES TO THE PUBLICANS.

St. Luke iii. 12, 13.

Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.

A true servant of Christ despises no man, but, like his Master, receives all who come to him. Even abhorred Publicans take courage to come to the Baptist; approaching him, austere as he seemed, with the language of affectionate respect. To understand his answer we must consider what was their occupation. They They were not the class of persons we understand by this name, but the Tax-gatherers, Collectors of the revenue under the Roman Government; which was in the habit of farming the taxes, that is, letting them out to certain persons, who, provided that they brought a certain sum into the public treasury, were allowed to make

1 St. Matt. xix. 21.

2 See also 1 St. John iv. 20; and St. James ii. 15, 16.

3 Henry.

St. Luke vii. 33, 34.

as much more as they could for themselves. This plan was obviously a premium upon extortion, and led to the abuse against which the Baptist in plain terms warns his penitents. He warns them against the besetting temptation of this particular employment, and so teaches us "to distinguish the abuses of any state or condition of life from the condition itself. A wise preacher should be so far from disturbing either the peace of private consciences or the public repose by condemning necessary employments, that he ought carefully to promote both, by contenting himself with only retrenching the disorders and injustice of those who exercise them." In the case of Zacchæus, whose meet fruits of repentance are also admitted among the sentences at the Offertory, we have perhaps an instance of the effect of the Baptist's teaching in this place.

XXXIX.

THE BAPTIST REPLIES TO THE SOLDIERS.

St. Luke iii. 14.

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

In the case of soldiers, men actually on the line of march,2 the Baptist addresses himself to the peculiar temptations of their profession. We do not find him denouncing it altogether, any more than our Lord did in the case of the good Centurion, or St. Peter in the case of Cornelius; though certain well-meaning but narrow-minded persons take upon themselves to do so now-a-days. "If all war were contrary to the Gospel, he would not have allowed those who presented themselves before him to continue in that state."4 But we find "he does not bid the men abandon their profession, but

1 Quesnel.

2 So in the original.

3 St. Matt. viii. 5-13.

4 Quesnel.