4 And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey. rusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many 5 Then went out to him Je- of the Pharisees and Sadducees 4. Camel's hair. The hair of the Judea. || Judea. See on 3: 1. || Jorcamel, which was shed every year, dan; the river so named. By inspectwas manufactured into a coarse cloth, ing the Map, it will be seen that the which constituted the clothing of the Jordan is the principal river of Palespoorer class of people. In Zech. 13: tine. It rises in the northern part of 4, there seems to be an intimation that the country, and pursues a southerly dress of an inferior quality was usual course, with various windings, till it among the ancient prophets. || Leath- empties into the Dead Sea. || The ern girdle. Such a girdle Elijah | region round about Jordan; the counwore. 2 Kings 1: 8. The dress worn try lying along the Jordan, on each at that time was loose and flowing; side. The meaning of the sacred and when persons went abroad, they writer, in the whole verse, is, that used a girdle, which was bound great multitudes from the several around the loins. The girdle made places mentioned, repaired to John; of leather was an ordinary one. It not that every individual from all was sometimes made of cotton, some- these places went; just as we say, times of silk. || Meat. This word, the whole world knows some particunow applied solely to animal food, lar thing, when we mean that it is a was formerly of more general signifi- matter of common notoriety; or, the cation, like the word food. || Locusts. whole city was in commotion, when In Eastern countries, locusts are roast- we mean. that multitudes of the citied, and sometimes boiled, for the use zens were excited. of the common people. They are 6. In Jordan; that is, more propersalted and preserved, and used as oc- ly, and more strictly in accordance casion requires. The inhabitants of with the original, in the Jordan. || ConPalestine, as well as the other Orien- fessing their sins. John required retals, have always been accustomed to pentance in those who would be bapmake several species of the locust an tized by him. See v. 8. Hence, in article of food. See Lev. 11: 22. Mark 1: 4, he is said to have preached Wild honey. This was probably not" the baptism of repentance," that is, the honey of bees, but what is called honey-dewa sweet substance, found very plentifully on the leaves of trees in some Oriental countries. Thus, both in regard to clothing and to food, John lived in an austere and self-denying manner; using such food and clothing as were comparatively mean and easily procured. Compare Matt. 11: 8-18. NOTICE here, that an exterior garb of poverty may be consistent with rare excellence in the sight of God. Compare v. 4 with Matt. 11: 11. 5. Jerusalem; the metropolis of the Jewish nation, situated, as the Map shows, in that part of the land called baptism, which implied repentance on the part of the persons baptized, and which was a special method of acknowledging their repentance. Consequently, confession of sin was required. Those who were baptized by John, were understood, by that act, to indicate themselves as penitents, professing to enter on a new life, and thus to be preparing for the Messiah. 7. Pharisees and Sadducees. These were the two principal sects among the Jews in the time of John and of Jesus. For an account of them, see the INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATIONS, at the beginning of this work, III. 1 come to his baptism, he said 9 And think not to say withunto them, O generation of in yourselves, We have Abravipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : ham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 8. Fruits. This word, as applied to men, is equivalent to the term conduct or course of life. Meet for repentance; consistent with repentance, or suited to repentance. Let your lives henceforth be such as will be consistent with repentance, and suitable for persons who profess reformation of heart and life. John prescribes the same rule which the Saviour afterwards so distinctly maintained (Matt. 7: 20)-By their fruits ye shall know them. Let us never forget, that a merely external profession of piety is utterly valueless. and 2. page xv. It may here be obed that a messenger would precede served, that they were men of dis- the Messiah, in order to effect a gentinction, expecting the Messiah, in eral reformation, he made it distinctly common with the great body of the known, that, unless such a reformation nation. As the people in general as was adapted to the Messiah's obwere attracted towards John, and ject should take place, God would many were receiving baptism from smite the people with a curse. him in reference to the coming of the Messiah, they too, doubtless from wrong motives, such as a love of popularity, and a wish not to lose their hold upon the people, requested baptism. John, discerning their duplicity, and struck with the inconsistency of such men as they, who prided themselves upon their superior sanctity, seeking admission to an ordinance which spoke of sin, and repentance, and confession, promptly declined their request. || Generation of vipers; offspring of vipers. The viper was a figure of a hypocritical and injurious man. See Matt. 12: 34. 23:33. These men made great pretensions to piety, but they were really destitute of piety, and were injurious to the people. Who hath warned you? You, who make such professions of strict piety, and so rigidly enforce obedience upon others, who has undertaken to warn you? Have you come hither, under the influence of such warning, to amend your lives, and to seek deliverance from the punishment due to sinners? Or have you come in a hypocritical manner, seeking to maintain your reputation among the people, while yet you feel not your need of repentance? The wrath to come; the punishment with which the sins of the people were to be visited. The expression is general, and includes whatever miseries should befall the people in consequence of their sins, both in this world and in the world to come. When Malachi (4: 5, 6) had predict 9. Think not to say; that is, Say not. A similar manner of speaking is found, in the original, in Mark 10: 42-"they which are accounted to rule; " which thought is expressed in Matt. 20: 25, by the term "the princes," that is, those who rule. || Abraham to our father; Abraham for, or as, our father. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, placed great reliance on their being descended from Abraham. They regarded it as almost a matter of course, that they, as children of Abraham, possessed the favor of God, and would enjoy the blessings of the Messiah's administra tion. The ground of acceptance they considered to be, the merits of Abra ham, circumcision, and the offering of sacrifices. Of these stones. John endeavored to correct the erroneous notions which were so current, and to show that natural descent does not communicate good desert, and cannot be of avail as to acquiring an 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringinterest in the blessings of the new dispensation. Descent from Abraham was hereafter to be regarded as of little importance; personal repentance was demanded. God was not dependent on the Jews for acquiring suitable subjects for the Messiah's reign; the most unlikely materials he could mould, so as to answer his purposes. The very stones on the Jordan's bank, he could transform, if he saw fit, into human beings, possessing characters like Abraham's. eth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with tize in water, as in the phrase They were baptized in the Jordan; and the same impropriety in saying baptize with water, as in saying baptize with the Jordan. Unto repentance; as if he had said, The baptism which I administer, implies a profession of repentance, an acknowledgment of your being sinners, and of your obligation and determination to reform your hearts and lives. Those who receive baptism from me, are, by that act, marked as persons professing hearty reformation, and thus waiting for the coming Messiah. Such is the nature of my office.-A proper view of John's office must at once have shown these impenitent Pharisees and Sadducees, that they were not fit subjects for his baptism. The language of John, I baptize you, does not imply that he had baptized the Pharisees, and all others whom he was addressing. Indeed his remarks clearly imply the contrary; this also appears from Luke 7: 30. His use of the word you must be explained by referring to the language of ordinary life. In addressing a collection of people, such an expression would be understood as meaning, those of you whom I baptize, &c. || Unto repentance; that is, in reference to repentance, as professing the obligation to repentance and the exercise of it. 10. Is laid unto the root; lies at the root, ready for use. In the Messiah's reign, regard is paid to the real characters of men, not to outward distinctions. The same principles which an owner of trees applies to them, are applied to men. Trees which produce not good fruit, and are, therefore, useless to the proprietor, are cut down and burnt up. So, in the Messiah's dispensation, there is a discrimination according to character. To belong to this dispensation, in respect to its distinguishing benefits, is an individual matter, not a national matter. Decisions are made now according to personal character. The allusion to useless fruit-trees being cut down and used for fuel, would be strongly felt in Palestine, where was very little spare land, and every foot was needed for profitable cultivation. See Luke 13: 6-9. || Cast John, having thus explicitly deinto the fire. As applied to men, this clared the nature and extent of his expression necessarily denotes rejec-office, proceeds to make known, with tion and being doomed to misery. Let the solemn admonition of John impress us deeply with the sentiment, that the piety of our ancestors, or of our relatives, will not avail for our salvation. Personal piety is required. equal explicitness, the superior dignity of the great Lord of the new dispensation, whose servant he did not feel himself worthy to be. || He that cometh after me; that is, the Messiah, whose approach John an nounced. The whole of John's teach 11. With water. The translation in water would be more in accord-ing, and his proclaiming of “the ance with the original. The preposition employed is precisely the same as is used in the sixth verse, and there translated in. There is the same propriety in the phrase I bap kingdom of heaven," or the reign of the Messiah, would make this expression well understood. || Mightier than I; of greater authority and pow. er. Whose shoes, &c.; sandals, water unto repentance: but he not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, nesses for the truth of Christianity, probably, coverings for the bottom of the feet, bound around the feet with leather straps. As stockings were not worn, the feet would become soiled; and when persons entered a house, the sandals were taken off and laid aside, so that the feet might be washed. This was the office of the lowest servants. John, then, by say-lous operations, to stand forth as wit ing I am not worthy to bear [to carry away] his sandals, conveyed this idea I am not worthy to be the most menial servant to so distinguished a personage as the Messiah. The evangelist Mark (17) varies slightly the form of expression, yet retains the same idea. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. The term Holy Spirit is preferable to the term Holy Ghost, as the word ghost is attended with unpleasant associations in many minds. The word translated with would be better rendered in; it is the same word, in the original, as is used in the beginning of this verse, and as is translated in, in the sixth verse. But what is it to baptize in the Holy Spirit? This expression, which has occasioned so much difficulty, would be rendered in a great measure clear, by referring to the radical meaning of the Greek word corresponding to our word baptize. Light would also be shed on other passages, if the word baptize, in translating, were used only in those places which relate to the ordinance of baptism, and the original meaning of the word were expressed by a corresponding word in other places; or if the primary meaning of the word were kept distinctly in view. The primary, radical meaning of this word in the original is, to dip, to immerse. As intimately connected with this primary meaning, the word also expresses the idea of a most copious imparting, inasmuch as one who is immersed in a fluid, most copiously partakes of it. To be immersed in the Holy Spirit, then, is to receive a most copious imparting of In Acts 11: 16, again occurs the same declaration of Jesus as we find in Acts 1: 5-" Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with [in] water; but ye shall be baptized with [immersed in] the Holy Spirit." Immediately before this declaration, and as reminding of what the Lord had said, it is stated, that when Peter began to speak to Cornelius and his company, "the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning." The imparting, then, of the Holy Spirit, on this occasion, was the same as baptizing in the Holy Spirit. 12 Whose fan is in his hand, | into the garner; but he will and he will thoroughly purge burn up the chaff with unhis floor, and gather his wheat | quenchable fire. baptize those who professed repentance, as a preparation for the Messiah, whose coming he announced. But soon the great Lord of the new dispensation would appear, and that with far greater authority than he possessed; HE would come with pow flict the punishments, appropriate to the new dispensation; and, as the result of his coming, on some would be most copiously shed tokens of divine favor, while on others would be most copiously poured tokens of divine indignation. If, now, we turn to Acts 10: 44-47, we shall find that when "the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word" from Peter, they spoke "with tongues," that is, in other languages, "and magnified God". -a striking similarity to what occurred on the day of Pentecost; and clearly show-er to bestow the rewards, and to ining, that to be baptized in the Holy Ghost is, to enjoy a most copious communication of divine influence. There is another passage, which may be brought into comparison with those already produced. It is in 1 Cor. 12: 13. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body; the idea of which words seems to be, that, by our copious partaking of divine influences, we have become closely united together, whatever may be our outward distinctions. Here, no allusion is made to the bestowal of miraculous gifts, but to mutual love, and to the mutual participation of the blissful hope which the gospel inspires. A similar instance of contrast, in respect to the Messiah, though in less forcible language, occurs in Luke 2: 34: "This child is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel: that is, he will prove an occasion for the ruin of many, and for the exalted bliss of many, in Israel. 12. In still further urging this thought of separation, as to destiny, between the righteous and the wicked, He will baptize you in the Holy John draws an illustration from the Spirit, then, means, he will most copi- operations of husbandry, with which ously impart divine influences, which his hearers were familiar. In the will be connected with signal bliss Eastern countries, the grain, when on earth, and lead to most distin- ripe, is deposited upon the threshing guished bliss in heaven. And with floor, and, after being trodden by fire; he will baptize you with fire; cattle, or beaten out, is by the winthat is, he will immerse you in fire. nowing fan separated from the chaff. And what is the meaning of this ex- The pure kernels, separated from pression? In the verse immediately the useless mass, are laid up in the before this, and in the verse imme- granary; the chaff and the stubdiately after it, the word fire occurs, ble are committed to the flames. as meaning extreme misery. The A similar award will be made by word in this verse, then, most natu- the Messiah. Discriminating berally has the same signification. In tween the characters of men, and other places, fire is used as an em- administering with perfect rectitude blem of punishment. See Matt. 25: the affairs of the divine kingdom, 41. Jude 7. Rev. 20: 14, 15. 21: 8. he will welcome some to bliss, and Mal. 41. To be immersed in fire, consign others to remediless woe. then, is to be overwhelmed with See Matt. 25: 31-46. Fan; winmisery. The verse thus presents an nowing fan, or shovel, by which affecting contrast. John declares, the grain, mingled with chaff, was that he himself had a comparatively exposed to the wind, so that the inferior work to perform; namely, to chaff was blown away. || Thoroughly call the people to repentance, and to purge his floor; thoroughly clear off |