Lord, to prepare the way for him and his religion, here called the kingdom of heaven, and as the prophet expresses it, to make his paths ftraight. This is a plain allufion to the custom that prevailed in eaftern countries, of fending meffengers and pioneers to make the ways level and straight before kings and princes and other great men, when they paffed through the country with large retinues, and with great pomp and magnificence. They literally lowered mountains, they raised valleys, they cut down woods, they removed all obftacles, they cleared away all roughneffes and inequalities, and made every thing smooth and plain and commodious for the great perfonage whom they preceded.

In the fame manner was John the Baptift in a spiritual fenfe to go before the Lord, before the Saviour of the world, to prepare his way, to make his paths ftraight, to remove out of the minds of men every thing that oppofed itself to the admiffion of divine truth, all prejudice, blindness, pride, obstinacy, felf-conceit, vanity, and vain philofophy; but above all, to fubdue and regulate thofe depraved affections, appetites, paffions, and inveterate habits of wickednefs, which are the grand obstacles to conversion and the reception of the word of God.

His exhortation therefore was, "Repent ye;" renounce thofe vices and abominations which at present blind your eyes and cloud your understandings, and then you will be able to fee the truth and bear the light. This was the method which John took, the inftrument he made ufe of to extirpate out of the minds of his hearers all impediments to the march of the Gofpel, or, as the prophetic language moft fublimely expreffes it, "He cried aloud to them, Prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight the highway for our God. Let every valley be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low; let the crooked be made ftraight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord fhall be revealed, and all flesh fhall fee it."

What a magnificent preparation is this for the great founder of our religion! What an exalted idea muft it give us of is dignity and importance, to have a forerunner and a har Ifaiah, xl. 3-5、

binger fuch as John to proclaim his approach to the world, and call upon all mankind to attend to him! It was a diftinction peculiar and appropriate to him. Neither 'Mofes nor any of the prophets can boast this mark of honour. It was referved for the Son of God, the Meffiah, the Redeemer of mankind, and was well fuited to the tranfcendant dignity of his person, and the grandeur of his design.

The place which St. John chofe for the exercife of his minif try was the wildernefs of Judea, where he feems to have lived conftantly from his birth to the time of his preaching; for St. Luke informs us, "that he was in the wilderness till the time of his fhewing unto Ifrael." Hear it appears he lived with great aufterity. For he drank neither wine nor ftrong drink; a rule frequently obferved by the Jews, when they devoted themfelves to the ftricter exercises of religion. And his meat was locufts and wild honey: fuch fimple food as the defert afforded to the lowest of its inhabitants. For eating fome forts of locufts was not only permitted by the law of Mofes, but as travellers inform us, is common in the eaft to this day. The clothing of the baptift was no less fimple than his diet. His raiment, we are told, was of camel's hair with a leathern girdle about his loins; the fame coarfe habit which the meaner people ufually wore, and which fometimes even the rich affumed as a garbe of mourn ing. For this raiment of camel's hair was nothing else than that fack-cloth which we fo often read of in Scripture. And as almost every thing of moment was, in thofe nations and those times, expreffed by vifible figns as well as by words, the prophets alfo were generally clothed in this drefs, becaufe one principal branch of their office was to call upon men to mourn for their fins. And particularly Elias or Elijah is defcribed in the fecond book of kings as a hairy man,† that is, a man clothed in hair-cloth or fack-cloth (as John was) with a leathern girdle about his loins. Even in outward appearance therefore John was another Elias; but much more fo as hewas endued, according to the angel's prediction, with the Spirit and power of Elias. Both rofe up among the Jews in times of univerfal corruption; both were authorized to denounce speedy vengeance from Heaven, unless they repented; both executed their commiffion with the fame intrepid Luke, i 80. ↑ 2 Kings, i. 8, Luke, i. 17.

zeal; both were perfecuted for it: yet nothing deterred either Elias from accusing Ahab to his face, or John from rebuking Herod in the fame undaunted manner.

But here an apparent difficulty occurs, and the facred writers are charged with making our Lord and St. John flatly contradict each other.

When the Jews fent priests and Levites from Jerufalem to afk John who he was, and particularly whether he was Elias ; his answer was, I am not :* But yet our Lord told the Jews that John was the Elias which was to come. How is this .contradiction to be reconciled? Without any kind of difficulty. The Jews had an expectation founded on a literal interpretation of the prophet Malachi, ‡ that before the Meffiah came, that very fame Elias or Elijah, who lived and prophefied in the time of Ahab, would rife from the dead and appear again upon earth. John therefore might very truly fay that he was not that Elias. But yet as we have feen that he refembled Elias in many ftriking particulars; as the angel told Zacharias that he should come in the spirit and power of Elias; and as he actually approved himself, in the turn and manner of his life, in his doctrine and his conduct, the very fame man to the latter Jews which the other had been to the former, our Saviour might with equal truth affure his difciples that John was that Elias, whofe coming the prophet Malachi had in a figurative fenfe foretold. This difficulty we fee is fo easily removed, that I should not have thought it worth noticing in this place, had it not been very lately revived with much parade in one of thofe coarfe and blafphemous publications which have been dispersed in this country with fo much activity, in order to diffeminate vulgar infidelity among the lower orders of people, but which are now finking faft into oblivion and contempt. This is one fpecimen of what they call their arguments against Christianity, and from this fpecimen you will judge of all the rest. But

to return.

The abftemioufnefs and rigour of the Baptift's life was calculated to produce very important effects. It was fitted • John, i. 21. † Matth,`xi. 14, Malachi, iv. 5.

to excite great attention and reverence in the minds of his hearers. It was well fuited to the doctrine he was to preach, that of repentance and contrition; to the seriousness he wifhed to infpire, and to the terror which he was appointed to imprefs on impenitent offenders. And perhaps it was further defigned to intimate the need there often is of harsh restraints in the beginning of virtue, as the eafy familiarity of our Lord's manner and behaviour exhibits the delightful freedom which attends the perfection of it. At least, placing these two characters in view of the world, fo near to each other, muft teach men this very instructive lesson; that though severity of conduct may in various cafes be both prudent and neceffary, yet the mildest and cheerfuleft goodness is the compleateft; and they the most useful to religion, who are able to converse among finners without rifquing their innocence, as difcreet phyficians do among the fick without endangering their health.

It is remarkable however that whatever mortifications John practifed himself, it does not appear that he prescribed any thing to others beyond the ordinary duties of a good life. His difciples indeed fafted often, and fo did many of the Jews befides; probably therefore the former as well as the latter by their own choice. His general injunction was only, "bring forth fruits meet for repentance." When more particular directions were defired, he commanded all forts of men to avoid more especially the fins, to which their condition most exposed them. Thus when the† people asked him (the common people of that hard-hearted nation) what fhall we do? John anfwered, "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do likewife." That is, let every one of you according to his abilities exercise thofe duties of charity and kindness to his neighbor, which you are all of you but too apt to neglect. The publicans or farmers of the revenue came to him, and faid, "Mafter, what fhall we do?"* And he faid, "Exact no more than that which is appointed you." Keep clear from that rapine and extortion of which you are fo often guilty in the collection of the revenue. The foldiers too demanded of him, "What shall we do?"

his answer was, "Do violence to no man, neither accufe any falfely, and be contented with your wages." That is, ab ftain from thofe acts of injuftice, violence, and oppreffion, to which your profeffion too often leads you. Lewd and debauched people also applied to him, to whom no doubt he gave advice fuited to their cafe. And therefore what he taught was not cerimonial obfervances, but moral condu& on religious principle; and without this he pronounced (however difgufting the doctrine must be to a proud and fuperftitious people) the highest outward privileges to be of no value at all. "Think *not," faid he to the Jews, "to fay within yourselves we have Abraham to our father, and are therefore fure of God's favor, be our conduct what it may: for I fay unto you that God is able of these stones to raife up children unto Abraham;" is able to make the most ftupid and ignorant of thefe heathens, whom you so utterly despise, converts to true religion and heirs of the promises.

Such were the doctrines which John preached to his difciples, and the fuccefs which attended him was equal to their magnitude and importance.

This was plainly foretold by the angel that announced his birth to his father Zacharias. "Many of the children of Ifrael (faid he) fhall he turn to the Lord their God. Which in fact he did. For the evangelifts tell us that "there went out unto him into the wilderness Jerufalem and all Judea, and all the region about Jordan, and were baptized of him.”‡ The truth of this is amply confirmed by Jofephus, who in-, forms us, that "multitudes flocked to him; for they were greatly delighted with his difcourfes."||

. It might naturally be expected that fuch extraordinary popularity and applaufe as this would fill him with conceit and vanity, and inspire him with a most exalted opinion of his own abilities, and a fovereign contempt for any rival teacher of religion. But fo far from this, the most prominent feature of his character was an unexampled modefty and humility. Though he had been ftiled by Malachi the meilenger of the Lord, and even Elias (the chief prophet Matth. iii. 9. Luke i. 16. Matth. iii. 5, 6. Jofeph. Antiq. Jud. xviii. 2. Edit. Huds.