of the Jews next to Moses) he never affumed any higher title than that very humble one given him by Ifaiah; the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Far from defiring or attempting to fix the admiration of the multitude on his own person, he gave notice from his first appearance of another immediately to follow him, for whom he was unworthy to perform the moft fervile offices. He made a fcruple, till expressly commanded, of baptizing one fo infinitely purer than himself, as he knew the holy Jefus to be. And when his difciples complained that all men deferted him to follow Chrift (a moft mortifying circumftance, had worldly applaufe, or intereft, or power, been his point) nothing could be more ingenuously felf-denying than his anfwer; "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I faid I am not the Christ, but am fent before him. He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which ftandeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He muft increase, but I must decrease: he that is of the earth is earthy: he that cometh from heaven is above all."

Of fuch unaffected and difinterested humility as this, where shall we find, except in Chrift, another instance? Yet with this was by no means united what we are too apt to affociate with our idea of humility, meannefs and timidity of fpirit; on the contrary, the whole conduct of the Baptift was marked throughout with the most intrepid courage and magnanimity in the discharge of his duty.

Instead of paying any court either to the great men of his nation on the one hand, or to the multitude on the other, he reproved the former for their hypocrify in the strongest terms; "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" and he required the latter to renounce every one of thofe favorite fins which they had long indulged, and were moft unwilling to part with. But what is still more, he reproved without fear and without reserve the abandoned and ferocious Herod, for injuriously taking away Herodias his brother's wife, and afterwards incestuously marrying her, and for all the other evil that he + Matthew iii. 7.

* John iii. 28. 29.

F

had done. He well knew the favage and unrelenting tem per of that fanguinary tyrant; he knew that this boldness of expoftulation would fooner or later bring down upon him the whole weight of his refentment. But knowing also that he was fent into the world to preach repentance to all, and feeling it his duty to cry aloud and spare not, to spare not even the greatest and most exalted of finners, he determined not to fhrink from that duty, but to obey his confcience, and take the confequences.

Those confequences were exactly what he must have forefeen. He was first shut up in prison; and not long afterwards, as you all know, the life of this great and innocent man was wantonly facrificed in the midst of conviviality and mirth to the rafh oath of a worthlefs and a merciless prince, to the licentious fascinations of a young woman, and the implacable vengeance of an old one.

After this short hiftory of the doctrines, the life, and the death of this extraordinary man, I beg leave to offer in conclufion a few remarks upon it to your ferious confideration.

And in the first place, in the testimony of John the Baptist, we have an additional and powerful evidence to the truth and the divine authority of Chrift and his religion.

If the account given of John in the Gofpels be true, the history given there of Jefus must be equally fo, for they are plainly parts of one and the fame plan, and are so connected and interwoven with each other, that they must either ftand or fall together.

Now that in the first place there did really exist such a perfon as John the Baptift at the time fpecified by the evangelifts, there cannot be the smallest doubt; for he is mentioned by the Jewish historian Jofephus, and all the circumftances he relates of him, as far as they go, perfectly correfpond with the defcription given of him by the facred hiftorians. He reprefents him as ufing the ceremony of baptifm. He fays that multitudes flocked to him, for they were greatly delighted with his difcourfes, and ready to obferve all his directions. He afferts that he was a good man;

and that he exhorted the Jews not to come to his baptifm without firft preparing themselves for it by the practice of virtue; that is, in the language of the Gofpels, without repentance. He relates his being inhumanly murdered by Herod; and adds, that the Jews in general entertained fo high an opinion of the innocence, virtue, and fanctity of John, as to be perfuaded that the destruction of Herod's army, which happened not long after, was a divine judgment inflicted on him for his barbarity to so excellent a man.*

1

It appears then that St. John was a perfon, of whose virtue, integrity, and piety, we have the most ample tefti mony from an hiftorian of unquestionable veracity, and we may therefore rely with perfect confidence on every thing he tells us. He was the very man foretold both by Ifaiah and Malachi, as the forerunner of that divine perfonage, whom He dethe Jews expected under the name of the Meffiah. clared that Jefus Chrift was this divine person, and that he himself was fent into the world on purpose to prepare the way before him, by exhorting men to repentance and reformation of life. If then this record of John (as the evangelifts call it) be true, the divine miffion of Chrift is at once eftablished, because the Baptift exprefsly afferts that he was the Son of God, and that whoever believed in him fhould have everlasting life. Now that this record is true, we have every reason in the world to believe, not only because a man fo eminently diftinguished for every moral virtue as St. John confeffedly was, cannot be thought capable of publicly proclaiming a deliberate falfehood; but because had his character been of a totally different complexion, had he for instance been influenced only by views of interest ambition, vanity, popularity; this very falfehood must have completely counteracted and overfet every project of this nature. For every thing he faid of Jefus, instead of aggrandizing and exalting himself, tended to lower and to debafe him in the eyes of all the world; he affured the multitude who followed him, that there was another perfon much more worthy to be followed; that there was one coming after him of far greater dignity and confequence than himself; one

Jofeph. Antiq. 1 xviii. c. 6. s. 2. Ed. Huds.
t John iii 36, i. 34.

whofe fhoes latchet he was not worthy to unloofe ;* one fo infinitely fuperior to him in rank, authority, and wisdom, that he was not fit to perform for him even the most servile offices. He himself was only come as a humble messenger to announce the arrival of his Lord, and smooth the way before him. But the great perfonage to whom they were to direct their eyes, and in whom they were to centre all their hopes, was JESUS CHRIST. Is this now the language of a man who fought only for honor, emolument, or fame, or was actuated only by the fond ambition of being at the head of a fect? No one can think fo. It is not very ufual surely for men of any character, much less for men of the best character, to invent and to utter a string of falsehoods with the profeffed defign of degrading themselves and exalting fome other perfon. Yet this was the plain tendency and avowed object of John's declarations, and the effect was exactly what might be expected, and what he wifhed and intended, namely, that great numbers deferted him and followed Christ.†

But befides bearing this honeft and difinterested teftimony to Chrift, the Baptist hazarded a measure which no impoftor or enthusiast ever ventured upon, without being immediate ly detected and expofed. He ventured to deliver two prophecies concerning Chrift; prophecies too which were to be completed, not at fome diftant period, when both he and his hearers might be in their graves, and the prophecy itself forgot, but within a very short space of time, when every one who heard the prediction might be a witness to its accomplishment or its failure. He foretold, that Jefus fhould baptize with the Holy Ghoft and with fire, and that he should be offered up as a facrifice for the fins of mankind. These were very fingular things for a man to foretel at hazard and from conjecture, because nothing could be more remote from the ideas of a Jew, or more unlikely to happen in the common course of things. They were moreover of that peculiar nature, that it was utterly impoffible for John and Jefus to concert the matter between themfelves; for the completion of the prophecies did not depend folely on them, but required the concurrence of other agents, of the Holy Ghoft in the first

Mark, i. 7. Luke, iii. 16.
Matth. iii. 11.

† John, iii. 26. 30; iv. L. John, i, 29.

inftance, and of the Jews and the Roman governor in the other; and unless these had entered into a confederacy with the Baptift and with Chrift, to fulfil what John foretold, it was not in the power of either to fecure the completion of it. Yet both these prophecies were, we know, actually accom plished within a very few years after they were delivered; for our Lord fuffered death upon the cross for the redemption of the world; and the Holy Ghoft defcended vifibly upon the apostles in the semblance of fire on the day of Pentecoft.*

It is evident then that the Baptift was not only a good man, but a true prophet; and for both reafons, his teftimony in favor of Chrift, that he was the Son of God, affords an inconteftible proof that both he and his religion came from heaven.

2. The hiftory of the Baptift affords a proof alfo of an, other point of no fmall importance. It gives a ftrong con firmation to that great evangelical doctrine, the doctrine of atonement; the expiation of our fins by the facrifice of Christ upon the crofs.

We are often told, that there was no need for this expia. tion. That repentance and reformation are fully fufficient to restore the most abandoned finners to the favor of a juft and merciful God, and to avert the punishment due to their offences.

But what does the great herald and forerunner of Chrift fay to this? He came profeffedly as a preacher of repentance. This was his peculiar office, the great object of his miflion, "Repent ye, and the conftant topic of his exhortations. bring forth fruits meet for repentance." This was the unceafing language of "the voice crying in the wilderness.”

If then repentance alone had fufficient efficacy for the expiation of fin, furely we fhould have heard of this from him who came on purpose to preach repentance. But what is the cafe? Does he tell us that repentance alone will take away the guilt of our tranfgreffions, and juftify us in the eyes of our Maker? Quite the contrary. Notwithstanding the great Matth. iii. 2. 8.

* Acts, ii, 2.