merely requires of them the performance of their duty in that state of life to which it had pleased God to call them."1 "It is just and necessary that there should be men to defend the state." Still the answer which these obtained points out, plainly enough, the temptations which most easily beset them. It was their duty to surmount these. They must remember that their business was to defend the state, not to render themselves a burthen to its inhabitants, so as to make these often feel the remedy to be worse than the disease; their own troops more troublesome than those brought against them. For in those times, in order to obtain rewards, they had a base habit of accusing the more wealthy inhabitants of a district of disaffection to the Government and other imaginary offences; that they might obtain a share of the plunder, the reward offered to informers. So that too often an unoffending person was marked out beforehand for a prey; as the wolf in the fable invented faults for the innocent lamb. The custom too in those times was to pay the soldiers partly in kind, which they received from the produce of the country through which they passed. This often led to violence. The men were in the habit of foraging on their own account. The Baptist bids them be content with what was brought them. Having received their share of what had been paid for and brought into the camp, they were not to be guilty of rapine in the surrounding country.3 They were in short to make the yoke of war, always burdensome enough, as light as may be. In all this counsel we are not to suppose the Baptist to be laying down terms of salvation; but men who would overcome the faults to which they were especially addicted, who in a word would do what they knew to be right and keep from what they knew to be wrong, were in a fair way to further improvement. He fed those with milk who were not yet able to bear strong meat.

1 A Plain Commentary. See Art. xxxvii.

2 Quesnel.

See for an illustration of this, the Life of Josephus 47, echoing these

words of the Baptist; which makes some think him to have been one of his hearers.

4 vv. 16-18 below.

XL.

THE WITNESS OF THE BAPTIST TO CHRIST.

St. Luke iii. 15-18.

And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

There was at this time a general expectation among the Jews that the Messiah was about to appear. When the Baptist came, so unlike any they had ever seen before, it set people thinking whether he might not be the Christ. But he hastens to disabuse their minds of any such idea. He answers, anticipates almost, the questions of all or any. First he contrasts his Baptism with the Baptism which should be introduced by that mightier one than he. John's Baptism was with water only; Christ's also with the Holy Ghost.1 He was sent to baptize with an outward visible sign, to which He that sent him annexed afterwards an inward and spiritual grace. Accordingly we find afterwards that those who had only been baptized to John's Baptism were also baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, that they might receive the Holy Ghost;3 who had not been yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. But when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, then began the dispensation of the Spirit, and it sat upon each of them in cloven tongues like as of fire. too, it may be, is reference to the Spirit's powerful work. He consumes the weakness and wickedness of men's hearts, even as the fire of Elijah's sacrifice licked up the water that was

1 St. John iii. 5; Acts ii. 38.

2 See Acts xix. 1-6.

2

3 Acts ii. 38.

Acts ii. 1-4.

Here

2

in the trench. Yet even a friendly fire may be put out by those who are unwilling to cherish the sacred flame. And so we have the Apostle saying, "Quench not the Spirit." See how highly the Baptist here exalts his Master; how humbly he speaks of himself. Elsewhere he says of that Mightier One who was to come, "Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear." In either case it is an expression of his felt unworthiness to do for him even the most menial offices. In Eastern countries the custom in their visits is, not to remove the hat or head-dress as with us, but to leave at the threshold of the house the loose shoes which are only worn outside. To take off, or carry and put on these, was the office of a slave. By this proverbial phrase the Baptist marks the difference between himself and the Mightier than he. Well may he feel unworthy to wait on him who is waited on by Angels. "The Baptist, greater than a prophet, passes from a view of the First Advent to a vision of the Second. Christ has come as a Saviour, and He is seen coming by him as a Judge.' By the frequent figure of an Husbandman, adopted by our Lord Himself, he now describes Him. Here is the awful picture of the last Judgment. The visible Church is a threshing-floor, in which wheat and chaff now lie together; the evil ever mingled with the good. But the instrument with which He winnows the mingled heap is at hand. The one is separated by unerring judgment from the other. That which is only fit for fuel, cast into the quenchless flame; the fire which is ever waiting to try man's work of what sort it is, and to destroy what is unprofitable: that which is proved good grain, gathered into the garner of God, for further usefulness. This was a specimen of his sermons.

This seems to have been a frequent figure with the Baptist, in auswer doubtless to frequent questioning. St. John i. 15, 19-36; iii. 26-31; Acts xiii. 25.

5

2 St. Mat. iii. 11.
3 Bp. Wordsworth.
4 Ps. i. 4, 5.

5 1 Cor. iii. 13.

"3

XLI.

JESUS BAPTIZED OF JOHN.

St. Matthew iii. 13-15.

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

2

4

As the Baptist was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel, so our Saviour remained in retirement at Nazareth, working probably at the trade of His supposed father,' till the time came when, in the counsels of God, He was to enter upon His ministry. This was, as another of the Evangelists informs us, when He was about thirty years of age. From Nazareth of Galilee Jesus now comes to the river Jordan, and asks for Baptism; the Master from His servant, the greater from the less, the Creator from His creature, at the hands of John. This, we are elsewhere informed, was "when all the people were baptized." In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren. The Baptist at the first expostulates. It was as if the Master should sit at the feet of the Scholar, the Physician put himself into the Patient's hands. I, who baptize with water, have need to be baptized of the Giver of the Holy Ghost. But the Lord insists, and He condescends to give a sufficient reason. He came to fulfil all righteousness. Already had He submitted to Circumcision. It became Him also to seek Baptism."The Author of both will undergo both. He would be circumcised, to sanctify His Church that was; and baptized, to sanctify His Church that should be." " This link, as it were, between the two dispensations, between the Law and the Gospel, He will not omit. He will omit nothing

1 St. Mark vi. 3.
2 St. Luke iii. 23.

St. Mark i. 9.

St. Matt. iii. 11.

St. Luke iii. 21.

6

Bp. Hall.

2

which should be undergone by those whom He came to represent. As one who comes to rule another country than his own original one, He will, as it were, naturalise Himself among His new subjects in the land of His adoption; being thus made one with them, that they may become one with Him. He who took the likeness of sinful flesh, takes also that of penitential Baptism. The Baptist, though not as yet understanding the full force and depth of the reason assigned, awed by His authority, assents. To hesitate at first was humility. To have persisted would have been disobedience. By His Baptism in the river Jordan, as our Office reminds us, He sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin. The water conveyed no virtue to Him, but He imparted His virtue to the water.3

XLII.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Matthew iii. 16, 17.

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

He "went up straightway out of the water;" entering upon His ministry, of which this was the introduction, with the same energy with which He again touched the earth. So afterwards, when he entered upon its final stage, we are told "He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem." And now we are called to behold a wondrous spectacle. The heavens are opened to their descended Lord, and the Spirit of God descends "in a bodily shape like a dove " upon Him, as afterwards He sat upon the Disciples in tongues of fire."

1 After Lightfoot.

2 After Lucas Brugensis.

See Ignatius ad Eph. xviii.

4 St. Luke iii. 22.

5 Acts ii. 3, 4.