all the region round about Jordan,

and of his preparatory work, that they went out to him at once. Many others had been drawn after him by the novelty of his dress and of his doctrine. So Christ intimates in Matt. 11. 7, when " He inquired of the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out for to see?"

Jerusalem. The capital of the king dom of Judah; called also Salem, Gen. 14. 18 and Ps. 76. 2; and Jebus, from the Jebusites, who held it before it was possessed by Israel (Josh. 18. 28). The name means, "habitation or inheritance of peace." The city was built on four principal hills: Bezetha, on the north; Moriah, on the east; Zion, on the south; Acra, on the west. Across the valley or ravine, by which Moriah was separated from Zion, a bridge was built, for easier access to the temple, which stood on Mount Moriah. "The mountains round about Jerusalem" were highest on the east, where lay the Mount of Olives, commanding the finest view of the city, and from which our Lord beheld it and wept. The temple was on that side; and the valley separating Moriah from Olivet was the valley of the Kedron; and there, at the foot of Mount Olivet, across the brook from the city, was the garden of Gethsemane. The valley of Jehoshaphat lies along the south-east, and the valley of Hinnom toward the southwest, separating the city respectively from the "Hill of Offence" and the "Hill of Evil Counsel." See Plate. The circumference of the ancient city was nearly three and a half geographical miles. The circumference of the present walls does not exceed two and a half-though Mount Zion is now unenclosed, and a portion also at the north. The population is estimated most correctly at fifteen thousand.- -¶ Jordan. The only river of any note in Palestine, gives the name to a broad valley through which it flows. This valley is some

6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

y Ac.1.5; 2.38; 19.4,5,18.

sixty miles in length, and from five to ten miles in breadth.

6. Were baptized. This ordinance had formerly been in use among the Jews. It was known as an initiatory rite. Proselytes to the Jewish religion were received in this way. Hence, they understood the ordinance as signifying an espousal of a new religion, and so it was a mode of public profession. More or less the outward rite involved the idea of cleansing. ing. The use of water had this significance. In the Christian church it is plainly symbolical of the Spirit's agency, and of this Divine influence graciously imparted from above. "Except a man be born again" (margin, from above). "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." Ezek. 36. 25. The word baptize, is the Greek term baptizo, not translated, but transferred to our language. Therefore it tells nothing of the mode. Observe the terms. Two elements are mentioned in the New Testament baptizing, viz., water, and the Holy Ghost. "I indeed baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.' From knowing of the mode in the use of one of these elements, we may infer the mode in the use of the other. The baptizing with the Holy Ghost is elsewhere spoken of, as by the Spirit's being poured out" Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high." Isa. 32. 15. "I will pour out my Spirit upon you." Prov. 1.23. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Joel 2. 28. Zech. 12. 10. Or its being sent→ "I will send the Comforter." Or its descending-as at Christ's baptism, where the sign and thing signified met "The Holy Ghost descended like a dove and rested upon Him." Or its being sprinkled upon the person. Ezek. 36. 25. "So shall He sprinkle many nations." Isa. 52. 15. And rain was a common emblem of it in the Old Testament. Hence, we conclude,

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto

z Is.59.5. c.12.34; 23.33. Lu.3.7.

that the baptizing with water is by its descent, outpouring, sprinkling upon the person. The doctrine of the ordinance requires it to be administered, | not by applying the person to the water, but the water to the person. This is the symbolical purport. The element denotes, not the atoning, but the cleansing influence. It is the water, not the blood. And renewing grace is to be received only at the sovereign hand of God. And the children of God are described in the Revelation, as having His name in their foreheads. It may here be mentioned, that the word baptisterium, from which the term baptistery is had, signifies, "not a bath sufficiently large to immerse the whole body, but a vessel or labrum containing water for pouring over the head (Plin. Ep. 6). See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. John's baptism was not fully the same as that in the Christian church; for some of John's disciples were re-baptized. Acts ch. 19. And the commission for the Christian church, was to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28. 19. (See notes on verse 11.) Confessing their sins. In the baptism of repentance (says Bengel) they confessed their sins. In the baptism of Christ they confessed Christ. John preached repentance; and they who received his baptism owned their sinfulness, and professed a change of mind and conduct. They put off former things, and gave an indication, and admitted a sign, of newness of life. This confession was open and free, as the term in Greek implies not private and auricular, and not constrained, but voluntary. Yet all this looked toward Christ, "in whom we have forgiveness of sins. "Sin is any want of conformity unta. or transgression of, the law of Goa." Shorter Catechism. "All unrighteous

"Sin is a

ness is sin." 1 John 5. 17. transgression of the law." 1 John 3. 4. And where persons of riper years receive baptism (and to such, of course, the ordinance was first offered), they should sincerely acknowledge past sin, with purposes and promises of a new life. The following verses show that this was John's view of it.

7. The PHARISEES were a powerful religious sect, of predominant influence in the Jewish state. They were the recognized teachers, proud of their legal knowledge, and boasting a superior sanctity; outwardly practising austerities, but inwardly indulging the worst passions. They believed in the resurrection, and in angels good and bad, as the Sadducees did not. Acts 23. 8. They held also to a divine government of fate, and they claimed favour of God, on the ground of descent from Abraham. They ob served the strictest letter of the Mo saic law; and besides held to various traditions (ch. 15. 2), washed them selves religiously before meals, faste & twice a week, on Thursdays and Mondays (see ch. 9. 14, and ch. 23. 15, 23 \, made much of vestments and of sa cred appendages (ch. 6. 1, ch. 23. 3 24), but were hypocritical (ch. 23. 14, 27, &c.), narrow-minded, selfish, bigoted, and vain, fond of pleasures and lax in morals (ch. 5. 20, ch. 15. 4, 8, ch. 23. 3, 14, 23, 25). And a religion such as theirs, was declared by our Lord wholly worthless for admittance to heaven (Matt. 5. 20). Their nam is from the Hebrew word, pharash, which means, to separate; and these, and such as "these, are they that separate themselves, having not the Spirit." Jude v. 19. Josephus says they were akin to the Stoics among the Greeks (Vita Joseph., § 2). See Matt. 9. 11, and 23. 5, 15, 29. The SADDUCEES were fewer, but more wealthy, and of higher rank, yet had no influence with the multitude.

meet for repentance:

10 And now also the axe is

1 Or, answerable to amendment of life.

They were bitter opposers of Christ, and denied the immortality of the soul, and all the doctrines of another life (Acts 23. 8). This being the character of these sects, John was surprised at their coming to his baptism. Hence he calls them by a name descriptive of their real disposition, "A generation of vipers," Isa. 14. 29, rather than the generation of faithful Abraham, which they claimed to be. A viper was a venomous serpent. And so they were children of the old serpent (Rev. 12. 9), who is the devil, "the father of lies." Cunning and poisonous with their doctrines, and ready to dart their malicious venom at everything good. -¶The wrath to come. He preached the wrath of God to come upon the wicked (2 Thess. 1. 10, 11). He alludes to Malachi 4. 6, as the wrath expected. Their coming to him, looked like a disposition to flee from that wrath, by receiving the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Observe, it was not a mere water bap- | tism that John preached, but one which implied a fleeing from the wrath to come upon sin, by taking the warning of repentance. And sinners are saved from the wrath to come, not by any baptism of water, but by fleeing for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us.

8. Fruits. He tells them, therefore, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance; that is, to begin with their conduct and principles, in a way appropriate to repentance, and to show in their lives the appropriate results of such a change. And as fruit is the best evidence of the nature and quality of a tree, so they should thus best evince their sincerity. ¶ Repentance, is a change of mind which is best proved by turning away from sin and Satan to God.

9. Abraham to our father. The Jews

boasted in Abraham. They were his descendants according to the flesh, and he was "the friend of God,” and the covenant was to him and to his seed. So these boasted in their mere hereditary descent, as a sufficient righteousness before God. But "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." He is not confined to nations, or to means, or to a law of succession in the church. They should not think that He was confined to Abraham's natural seed. The true succession now, is that of true piety; and Abraham's true children are such as God has raised up and created anew. (See John 8. 39.) "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3. 29). God can, and will, gather a chosen people from the Gentiles, which the Jews thought to be quite as impossible as that He should make church members out of stones. They mistook and perverted the Abrahamic covenant, which was to be of permanent force in the church, and which now includes, with believing parents, their infant offspring. But we cannot be saved, if we continue in sin, even though our parents be pious.

10. And now. This is the doctrinethat the time had come for getting at the root of things. Men's hearts should be laid open, and so they should be judged, and not according to the mere outward appearance. John notifies them of this new state of things. They were to be treated as trees are by the woodman.¶ Unto the root. The axe laid unto the root, denotes that every thing is ready now for cutting down such as are heartless and fruitless. That the trial shall be of the heart and life. Men cannot hope any longer to stand upon a mere profession, or external relation, or upon