ONG before the appearance of John the Baptift the Jews had Dan. ii. 44, been taught to expect that the God of heaven would, at a certain time, 45 without hands, fet up a kingdom, which should never be destroyed. This heavenly kingdom was the economy of affortment which John introduced, and the baptifm of John is called the beginning of the gofpel, the epoch from which the new teftament difpenfation is to be computed. The law and the prophets were until John: fince that time the kingdom of God is preached (1). This came to pafs in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæfar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Annas and Caiaphas were high priests.

It seems to have been an ancient idea, that the beginning mentioned in the new teftament, particularly in the first chapter of the gofpel of John, and in the first chapter of his first epiftle, is to be understood not of the beginning of the world, but of the beginning of the evangelical economy. This idea glimmers in the writings of the fathers, though obfcured by allegory. This is what Cyril feems to intend, when he fays, "water was the beginning of the world, and Jordan was the beginning of the gofpel" (2). This is a fort of harmony, ingenious but fanciful, between the first chapter of Genefis and the firft of Mark and John. In the former

(1) MARK. 1, 2.

LUKE iii. 1, 2. ACTS i., 21, 22.

(2) CYRILLI Hierofolymitani Cateches Αρχή του κοσμου το ύδωρ, και αρχή των ευαγελίων ο Ιορδάνης. Principium mundi aqua, et principium evangeliorum Jordanus. Veteris teftamenti finis, et novi eft principium baptifmus, &c.

it is faid, in the beginning the fpirit of God. moved upon the face of the waters: and in the latter, in the beginning, the beginning of the gofpel, John did baptize.

From the beginning of the world to this period good men had been in a condition of comparative imperfection. They were individuals mixed and confounded with numerous perfons of oppofite characters, in family, tribal and national divifions. They had never been A PEOPLE, but John was fent to affociate individuals, to form a people, or, as an evanLuke i. 17. gelift expreffes it, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, and the revolution effected at this time was fo fubftantial, that it is called a creation, a new age, a new world, of which Jefus, whom John proclaimed and introduced as chief, was declared the creator and lord, for John profeffed himself only a meffenger of Jefus, employed indeed in his ferJohn i. 19. vice, but not worthy to unloofe the latchet of his fhoes.

27.

John, it is fuppofed, was born at Hebron, and, if a judgment of his education may be formed by the character of his parents, he was trained Luke i. 6. up in habits of piety and virtue, for they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. How he was employed in his youth; whether his parents had given him any human literature; whether he were fingle or married; a man of property, or poor; with many other fuch queftions, muft ever remain unanswered, for his hiftorians did not think it neceffary to mention them.

They thought it, however, of confequence to affirm, that his conduct originated in a divine call. Neither did he come of himself, nor was he employed by any governing power of his country civil or ecclefiaftical, Luke iii. 2. nor did the populace fet him up, but the word of God came to him in the wildernefs, as to the ancient prophets. Three of the evangelists obferve, that the coming of this extraordinary man had been foretold by the prophet Ifaiah, and the fourth defcribes him as a man fent from God, which is further confirmed by Jefus, who declared, that the baptifm of John was from heaven, and not of men. So exactly was the prophecy of Daniel fulfilled, and fo truly did the God of heaven without hands fet up a kingdom to ftand for ever!

John i. 6.

Matt. xxi.

25.

When John was about thirty years of age, in obedience to the heavenly call, he entered on his miniftry, by quitting the hill-country, and going down by the wildernefs to the plains of Jordan, by proclaiming the kingdom of God, the near advent of the Meffiah, and the neceflity of preparing to receive him by laying afide fin and fuperftition, and by an exercife of univerfal juftice, and laftly by identifying the perfon of Jefus as the Meffiah. He diftributed various rules of righteousness among the. Luke iii. 10, different claffes that attended his miniftry. He faid to foldiers, Do violence to no man; he exhorted publicans to avoid exaction, and he taught the people benevolence, Let him that hath two coats impart to him that hath

&c.

none,

Matt. xxi.

26.

none, and he directed all to Jefus as mafter and Lord, in manifefting whom his miniftry was to ceafe. His drefs was plain, his diet abftemious, and his whole deportment grave, ferious, and fevere. Multitudes, both of provincials and citizens, flocked to hear him, and all held him as a prophet, and fuch as renounced their former finful practices, and believed his predictions concerning the Christ, were baptized by him in the river Mark i. 5. Jordan, but the pharifees and lawyers are to be excepted, for they rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and were not baptized of him.

Luke vii. 30.

While John was employed in preaching and baptizing at Bethabara beyond Jordan, various reports were spread abroad of him, and as the people Luke iii. 15. were in expectation of the Chrift, all men mused in their hearts whether he were

the perfon or not, and the Jews of Jerufalem fent a deputation of priests and John i. Levites to him to inquire what account he gave of himself. He fully an-19—29. fwered all their queftions, and informed them that he was not the Chrift, but the perfon, spoken of by Ifaiah, fent before to prepare the way of the Lord, who flood then among them, but who was not then known. This was the day of the manifeftation of Jesus.

It is uncertain by what means John obtained an interview with Herod, but, certain it is, he reproved him for living in adultery with Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and his language was that of a man who well underftood civil government, for he confidered law as fupreme in a state, and told the king, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Herodias Mark vi. 18. was extremely difpleafed with John for his honeft freedom, and determined to destroy him, but though the prevailed on the king to imprifon him, yet fhe could not perfuade him to put him to death. Two great obftacles oppofed her defign. Herod himself was fhocked at Mark vi. 20. the thought, for he had obferved John was convinced of his piety and love of Juftice, he had received pleasure in hearing him, and had done many things which John had advised him to do, and, as there is a dignity in innocence, the qualities of the man had ftruck him with an awe fo deep and folemn that, tyrant as he was, he could not think of taking away the life of John. Herod alfo dreaded the refentment of the publick, for he knew the multitude held John as a prophet. Herodias therefore Matt. xiv. 5. waited for a favourable opportunity to furprize the king into the perpetration of a crime, which neither juftice nor policy could approve, and fuch an one the found on the king's birth-day. The story is at large in the gofpel. Dreadful is the condition of a country where any one man is above controul, and can do what this abfolute king did! Whether he felt,

or only pretended to feel great forrow, the fact was the fame, be fent an Mark vi. 26, executioner, and commanded the head of the prophet to be brought, and John 27. was affaffinated in the prifon.

The murder did not fit easy on the recollection of Herod, for, soon after, when he heard of the fame of Jefus, his confcience exclaimed, It

is John, whom I beheaded, he is rifen from the dead! certainly, John the Baptift will rife from the dead, and Herod the tetrarch must meet him before an impartial judge, who will reward or punifh each according to the deeds done in the body. In the prefent cafe the Judge hath declared the character of John. John was a burning and a fhining light. Among Matt. xi. 11. them that are born of women there hath not rifen a greater than John the Baptift.

Jefus, fpeaking of the ill-treatment of John, implies that pofterity would do his character juftice, and, true it is, the children of wifdom have juftified John: but mankind have entertained, according to their various prejudices, very different opinions of that in which his worth confifted (3). The Jews praife his rectitude, and pity his fate, for John was their countryman, and they hated Herod (4). The Arabians celebrate his abftemioufnefs, and fay providence avenged his death (5). The Catholicks have invented a thoufand fables, and placed to his account the origin of monachifin, and the working of miracles. They have put him among their gods, confecrated waters, built baptifteries and temples to his honour, affigned him a day in the calendar, called themselves by his name, collected his pretended relicks, adorned them with filver and gold and jewellery, and wholly overlooked that which made John the greatest that had been born of women (6). How deplorable is it, that in the feventeenth century, in the enlightened kingdom of France, such a man as Du Frefne, of extenfive literature, of amiable manners, an inftructor of all Europe in matters of antiquity, fhould difgrace his pen by publishing a treatife, to prove that his native city of Amiens was in poffeffion of that precious relick the head of St. John the Baptift: found at Jerufalem, carried to Conftantinople, difcovered again in the city of Emesa, then tranfported to Comana, carried again to Conftantinople, where the French found it when they took the city, and whence they conveyed it to Amiens, where it is now enshrined in all the odour of Saintship (7). This example, to which a great number more might be added, may ferve to fhew Proteftants, that whatever honour may be due to fuch learned Catholicks, and much unquestionably is their due, yet very little depend

(3) MATT. xi. 19.

(4) JOSEPH GORION. Lib. v. cap. 45.

GANZ TZEMACH DAVID. i. xxv. 2... Herodes, Johannem facerdotem maximum, eo quod ipfum redarguiffet occidit gladio, cum multis aliis fapientibus Ifrael, &c.

(5) SALE'S Koran, chap. ii. The family of Imram [the father of the Virgin Mary].

Chap. xvii. the Night Journey. Note b.

JOH. HENRIC. HOTTINGERI Hiftoria Oriental. ex variis oriental, monument, colle&a.

Tiguri. 1651. Cap. iii. Muhammedis geneal. pag. 86. 96. BEIDAVI..ZAMHASCHARI..

KESSEUS, &c.

D'HERBELOT. Biblist. orient. JAHIA BEN ZACARIA.

(6) BARON. Annal... . . A&ta San&t.....PACIAUDI Antiq. Chrift.

(7) Traite Hiftorique du chef de S. Jean Baptifte, avec des preuves et des remarques par CHARLES DU FRESNE, SR. DU CANGE. Paris, Cramafy. 1665.

ence

ence ought to be placed upon their critical difcernment. They are voluminous collectors of all manner of materials, genuine and forged, and fo they ferve fociety: but it is the province of Proteftants in free countries, where there are no licenfers of the prefs, to fit in judgment on their works, and by felecting the true from the falfe, wherever they are blended together, to give mankind juft ideas of ecclefiaftical history.

It was for juft and noble reasons, worthy of a wife and benevolent mind, that Jefus eftimated John fo highly as to pronounce him as great a man as had been born of women: to which he added, the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. It was a comparison between John and his predeceffors, and John and his fucceffors, in framing the new œconomy. He was greater than his predeceffors, because he first introduced a moral affortment of Jews, a kingdom of heaven upon earth: he was lefs than the. apoftles his fucceffors, becaufe under the direction of Jefus, they brought his plan to perfection, by afforting and incorporating Jews and Gentiles in focieties exprefsly united for the improvement of the mind, the meliorating of the heart, and the regulation of the life, a compact practice of piety, and an uniform course of virtue, and fo extending and establishing perfonal excellence, tending to unite all mankind in one family of univerfal love; and he who under God gave a fketch of a defign fo pure, and fo generous, ought to be reputed one of the first characters among mankind. How great then muft he be, the latchet of whofe fhoes this great man was not worthy to unloofe?

W

CHA P. II.

Of the Baptifm which John administered.

HETHER John baptized by pouring on water, or by bathing in water, is to be determined chiefly, though not wholly, by afcertaining the precife meaning of the word baptize. A linguift determines himself by his own knowledge of the Greek language, and an illiterate man by the beft evidence he can obtain from the teftimony of others, whom by his condition he is obliged to truft. To the latter it is fufficient to obferve, that the word is confeffedly Greek, that native Greeks must understand their own language better than foreigners, and that they have always understood the word baptifm to fignify dipping; and therefore from their firft embracing of Chriftianity to this day they have always baptized, and do yet baptize, by immerfion. This is an authority for the

meaning