Baptism of Repentance, preached by the forerunner of our Lord," and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, inculcated by our Lord himself; both these Baptisms are personal. The two circumstantial Baptisms are, the Baptism of a people unto Moses, and Our Lord's Baptism of sufferings.

e

b Matt. iii. 11.

d 1 Cor. x. 2.

c John, iii. 5.

e Luke, xii. 50.

PART THE FIRST.

SECTION I.

THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE.

THE Baptism of Repentance was preached by John, who, from his office, was called "The Baptist." He was the immediate forerunner of our Lord, and was to prepare the way before Him.a

When our Lord was born King of the Jews, the Jewish nation, to whom he was sent, had well nigh forgotten God; they had made void the commandments of God by their tradition. They were, indeed, expecting a Messiah, but so little had they attended to the predictions of their prophets concerning him, that they expected to see him invested with worldly glory. So little did they feel their bondage to the elements of the world, that they thought only of being delivered from their bondage to the Roman Empire, to which they were at this time subject; and so in© John, vi. 15.

a Matt. iii. 3.

b Mark, vii. 9 & 13.

d

fatuated were they, that rather than submit to the spiritual discipline of Christ, they would increase their subserviency to Pagan Rome,-witness their pretended zeal for the rights of Cæsar. To perceive the hatred they bore to Jesus, look at the character of the man whom they chose to be released in his stead: there was a company of men in prison for insurrection, one of their number in the sedition had committed murder. So fully were their hearts set in them to do evil, and so determined were they to crucify the Son of God, that, to testify their utter hatred to him, they chose to be released in his stead, not one of the thieves who were afterwards crucified, not one of the men who for sedition only were cast into prison, though that was a very black crime, but they chose the worst, the most abandoned of these abandoned men, 66 one who for sedition and murder was cast into prison.'

,, е

To a people so corrupt Jesus could not have preached the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, they were not in a fit state to receive His divine agency, any more than the ground covered with thorns and briers is fit to receive the good seed: these must first be rooted up and the ground tilled. So

d Matt. xxii. 17; Luke, xxv. 2.

e Luke, xxiii. 19 & 25.

it is with the human heart. The Jews required a preparation for the spiritual and holy doctrines of the Saviour. To preach to them a baptism, which comprehended nothing less than a death to sin, and life of righteousness- a righteousness not merely in the outward appearance, but in the feelings and desires of the heart; to preach such a baptism as this to a people so full of worldly expectations and desires, would have excited their contempt rather than their admiration. It was necessary, therefore, that they should be in some degree prepared for this spiritual self-denying sacrament. To this end did John the Baptist appear. "He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness." A wilderness indeed the land of Judea was as it regarded the spiritual culture of the heart. John was to cut down the briers and thorns of this spiritual wilderness; for "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things," had entered into this once garden of the Lord, and rendered the word of prophecy preached amongst them unfruitful. John must then lay the axe to the root of these trees of wickedness, that every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit may be hewn down," - every principle which leadeth not to works of righteousness may be destroyed: for they are principles,

not persons, that are meant by trees in Matt. iii. 10. The Baptist, when he spake these words, was contending with the principles laid down by the Pharisees and Sadducees, one of which was, that Abraham was their father, they were lineally descended from him, therefore they were righteous before God. Their argument was this: Abraham was the friend of God, we are the children of Abraham; therefore, friends of God. John cautions them against the evil of this principle, and tells them that God is able of these stones, of these hardhearted and notoriously wicked persons, (for such were the publicans and soldiers, whom he had just baptized, considered by the Pharisees,) to raise up children unto Abraham. And now (says he) the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." "" f The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: every principle therefore lurking amongst those called by the name of God that impedes his work must be done away. Not every principle that worketh evil, but every one that worketh not good. Not every tree that bringeth forth evil fruit, but every tree that

66

f Matt. iii,