2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. is not probable that John began to baptize or preach long before the Saviour entered on his ministry; and, consequently, from the time that is mentioned at the close of the second chapter, to that mentioned in the beginning of the third, an interval of twenty-five or more years elapsed. ¶ John the Baptist. Or John the baptizer so called from his principal office, that of baptizing. Baptism, or the application of water, was a rite well known to the Jews, and practised when they admitted proselytes to their religion from heathenism. Lightfoot. Preaching. The word rendered to preach, means, to proclaim in the manner of a public crier; to make proclamation. The discourses recorded in the New Testament are mostly brief, sometimes a single sentence. They were public proclamations of some great truth. Such appear to have been the discourses of John, calling men to repentanee. In the wilderness of Judea. This country was situated along the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, to the east of Jerusalem. The word translated wilderness, does not denote, as with us, a place of boundless forests, entirely destitute of inhabitants; but a mountainous, rough, and thinly settled country, covered, to some considerable extent, with forests and rocks, and better fitted for pasture than for tilling. There were inhabitants in those places, and even villages, but they were the comparatively unsettled portions of the country. 1 Sam. xxv. 1, 2. In the time of Joshua there were six cities in what was then called a wilderness. Joshua xv. 61, 62. 2. Repent ye. Repentance implies sorrow for past offences (2 Cor. vii. 10.); a deep sense of the evil of sin as committed against God (Ps. li. 4.); and a full purpose to turn from transgression and to lead a holy life. A true penitent has sorrow for sin, not only because it is ruinous to his soul, but chiefly because it is an offence against God, and is that abominable thing which he hates. Jer. xliv. 4. It is produced by seeing the great danger and misery to which it exposes us; by seeing the justness and holiness of God (Job xlii. 3 For this is he that was spoken of" by the prophet Esaias, saying, a Is.40.3. T 6.); and by seeing that our sins have been committed against Christ, and were the cause of his death. Zech. xii. 10. Luke xxii. 61, 62. There are two words in the New Testament translated repentance; one of which denotes a change of mind, or a refor. mation of life; and the other sorrow or regret that sin has been committed. The word used here is the former: calling the Jews to a change of life, or a reformation of conduct. In the time of John, the nation had become extremely wicked and corrupt, perhaps more so than at any preceding period. Hence both he and Christ began their ministry by calling to repentance. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The phrases, kingdom of heaven kingdom of Christ; and kingdom o God; are of frequent occurrence in the Bible. They all refer to the same thing. The expectation of such a king dom was taken from the Old Testa ment, and especially from Daniel, ch. vii. 13, 14. The prophets had told o a successor to David that should sit on his throne. 1 Kings ii. 4; viii. 25; Jer. xxxiii. 17. The Jews expected a great national deliverer. They sup posed that when the Messiah should appear, all the dead would be raised; that the judgment would take place; and that the enemies of the Jews would be destroyed, and themselves advanced to great national dignity and honor. The language in which they were accustomed to describe this event was retained by our Saviour and his apostles. Yet they early attempted to correct the common notions respecting his reign. This was one design, doubtless, of John in preaching repentance. Instead of summoning them to military exercises, and collecting an army, which would have been in accordance with their expectations, he called them to a change of life; to the doctrine of repentance a state of things far more accordant with the approach of a kingdom of purity. The phrases kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, have been sup. posed to have a considerable variety of The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 And the same John had his " a 2 Ki.1.8. Mat.11.8. meaning. Some have thought that they refer to the state of things in heaven; others, to the personal reign of Christ on earth; others, that they mean the church, or the reign of Christ in the hearts of his people. There can be no doubt that there is reference in the words to the condition of things in heaven, after this life. But the church of God is a preparatory state to that beyond the grave; a state in which Christ pre-eminently rules and reigns; and there is no doubt that it sometimes refers to the state of things in the church; and it means, therefore, the state of things which the Messiah was to set up his spiritual reign begun in the church on earth, and completed in heaven. The phrase would be best translated, 'the reign of God draws near.' We do not say commonly of a kingdom that it is moveable, or that it approaches. A reign may be said to be at hand; or the time when Christ would reign was at hand. In this sense it is meant that the time when Christ should reign, or set up his kingdom, or begin his dominion on earth, under the Christian economy, was about to commence. The phrase, then, should not be confined to any period of that reign, but includes his whole dominion over his people on earth and in heaven. In the passage here it clearly means that the coming of the Messiah was near; or that the time of the reign of God which the Jews had expected was coming. The word heaven, or heavens, as it is in the original, means sometimes the place, so called; and sometimes is, by a figure of speech, put for the Great Being whose residence is there; as in Daniel iv. 26; "the Heavens do rule." See also Mark xi. 30. Luke xv. 18. As that kingdom was one of purity, it was proper that the people should prepare themselves for it by turning from their sins, and directing their minds to a suitable fitness for his reign. 3. The prophet Esaias. The pronhet Isaiah. Esaias is the Greek mode raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey. b Le.11.22. of writing the name. This passage is taken from Isaiah xl. 3. It is here said to have been spoken in reference to John, the forerunner of Christ. The language is such as was familiar to the Jews, and such as they would understand. It was spoken at first with reference to the return from the captivity at Babylon. Anciently it was customary in the march of armies 10 send messengers, or pioneers, before them, to proclaim their approach: to provide for them; to remove structions; to make roads, level hills, fill up valleys, &c. Isaiah, describing the return from Babylon, uses language taken from that custom. A crier, or herald, is introduced. In the vast deserts that lay between Babylon and Judea, he is represented as lifting up his voice, and, with authority, commanding a public road to be made for the return of the captive Jews, with the Lord as their deliverer. Prepare his ways, make them straight, says he;' or, as Isaiah adds, Let the valleys be exalted, or filled up, and the hills be levelled, and a straight, level highway be prepared, that they may march with ease and safety.' See my Notes on Isa. xl. As applied to John, it means, that he was sent to remove obstructions, and to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah; like a herald going before an army on the march, to make preparations for their coming. 4. His raiment, of camel's hair. His clothing. This is not the fine hair of the camel from which our elegant cloth is made, called camlet; nor the more elegant stuff, brought from the East Indies, under the name of camel's hair; but the long, shaggy hair of the camel, from which a coarse, cheap cloth is made, still worn by the poorer classes in the East, and by monks. This dress of the camel's hair, and a leathern gir dle, it seems, was the common dress of the prophets. 2 Kings, i. 8. Zech. xiii. 4. His meat was locusts. His food. These constituted the food of the common people. Among the Greeks, 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, 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 of the a Ac.1.5. 2.38. 19.4,5,18. the vilest of the people used to eat them; roasted enough, he took them by the and the fact that John made his food of legs and head, and devoured the rethem is significant of his great poverty mainder at one mouthful. When the and humble life. The Jews were al- Arabs have them in quantities, they lowed to eat them. Lev. xi. 22. Lo- roast or dry them in an oven, or boil custs are flying insects, and are of va- them and eat them with salt. The rious kinds. The green locusts are Arabs in the kingdom of Morocco boil about two inches in length, and about the locusts; and the Bedouins eat lothe thickness of a man's finger. The custs, which are collected in great quancommon brown locust is about three tities in the beginning of April, when inches long. The general form and they are easily caught. After having appearance of the locust is not unlike been roasted a little upon the iron plate the grasshopper. They were one of on which bread is baked, they are dried the plagues of Egypt (Ex. x.). In east- in the sun, and then put into large sacks, ern countries they are very numerous. with the mixture of a little salt. They They appear in such quantities as to are never served up as a dish, but every darken the sky, and devour in a short one takes a handful of them when huntime every green thing. The whole earth gry."-Un. Bib. Dic. ¶ Wild honey. is sometimes covered with them for This was probably the honey that he many leagues. Joeli. 4. Isa. xxxiii. 4, 5. found in the rocks of the wilderness. "Some species of the locust are eaten Palestine was often called the land at this day in eastern countries, and flowing with milk and honey. Ex iii. are even esteemed a delicacy when 8, 17; xiii. 5. Bees were kept with properly cooked. After tearing off the great care; and great numbers of them legs and wings, and taking out the en- abounded in the fissures of trees and trails, they stick them in long rows the clefts of rocks. There is also a upon wooden spits, roast them at the species of honey called wild-honey, or fire, and then proceed to devour them wood-honey (1 Sam. xiv. 27, margin), with great zest. There are also other or honey-dew, produced by certain litways of preparing them. For exam-tle insects, and deposited on the leaves ple: they cook them and dress them in oil; or, having dried them, they pulverize them, and when other food is scarce, make bread of the meal. The Bedouins pack them with salt, in close masses, which they carry in their leathern sacks. From these they cut slices as they may need them. It is singular that even learned men have suffered themselves to hesitate about understanding these passages of the lit-rusalem was in the part of the country eral locust, when the fact that these are eaten by the orientals is so abundantly proved by the concurrent testimony of travellers. One of them says, they are brought to market on strings in all the cities of Arabia, and that he saw an Arab on mount Sumara, who had collected a sack full of them. They are prepared in different ways. An Arab in Egypt, of whom he requested that he would immediately eat locusts in his presence, threw them upon the glowing coals; and after he supposed they were of trees, and flowing from them in great quantities to the ground. See 1 Sam. xiv. 24-27. This is said to be produc. ed still in Arabia; and perhaps it was this which John lived upon. 5. Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem. All Judea. Many people from Judea. It does not mean that lit erally all the people went, but that great multitudes went. It was general. Je called Judea. Judea was situated on the west side of the Jordan. See Note Matt. ii. 22. Region about Jordan On the east and west side of the river Near to Jordan. 6. Were baptized. The word bap tize signifies originally to tunge, to dye to stain, as those who dye clothes. It here means to cleanse or wash any thing by the application of water. See Note Mark vii. 4. Washing, or ablution, was much in use among the Jews, as one of the rites of their religion. Num Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them,O genera xix. 7. Heb. ix. 10. It was not cus- vinegar. Ruth ii. 14. To dip the feet tomary, however, among them to bap-in oil-an emblem of plenty. Deut. xxxiii. 24. To dye, or stain. Eze. xxiii 15. To plunge into a ditch, so as tc defile the clothes. Job ix. 31. To dip the end of a staff in honey. 1 Sam. xiv. 27. To dip in Jordan-a declaration respecting Naaman the Syrian. 2 Kings v. 14. The direction of the prophet was to wash himself. ver. 10. This shows that he understood washing and baptizing to mean the same thing. To dip a towel, or quit, so as to spread it on the face of a man to smother him. 2 Kings viii. 15. In none of these cases can it be shown that the meaning of the word is to immerse entirely. But in nearly all the cases, the notion of applying the water to a part only of the person or object, though it was by dipping, is necessarily to be supposed. tize those who were converted to the Jewish religion until after the Babylonish captivity. At the time of John, and for some time previous, they had been accustomed to administer a rite of baptism, or washing, to those who became proselytes to their religion; that is, who were converted from being Gentiles. This was done to signify that they renounced the errors and worship of the Pagans, and as significant of their becoming pure by embracing a new religion. It was a solemn rite of washing, significant of cleansing from their former sins, and purifying them for the peculiar service of Jehovah. John found this custom in use; and as he was calling the Jews to a new dispensation, to a change in their form of religion, he administered this rite of baptism, or washing, to signify the cleansing from their sins, and adopting the new dispensation, or the fitness for the pure reign of the Messiah. They applied an old ordinance to a new purpose. As it was used by John it was a significant rite, or ceremony, intended to denote the putting away of impurity, and a purpose to be pure in heart and life. The Hebrew word (Tabal) which is rendered by the word baptize, occurs in the Old Testament in the following places, viz: Lev. iv. 6; xiv. 6, 51. Num. xix. 18. Ruth ii. 14. Ex. xii. 22. Deut. xxxiii. 24. Eze. xxiii. 15. Job ix. 31. Lev. ix. 9. 1 Sam. xiv. 27. 2 Kings v. 14; viii. 15. Gen. xxxvii. 31. Joshua iii. 15. It occurs in no other places; and from a careful examination of these passages, its meaning among the Jews is to be derived. From these passages it will be seen that its radical meaning is not to sprinkle, or to immerse. It is to dip, commonly for the purpose of sprinkling, or for some other purpose. Thus, to dip the finger, i. e. a part of the finger, in blood enough to sprinkle with. Lev. iv. 6. To dip a living bird, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop, in the blood of the bird that was killed, for the purpose of sprinkling; where it could not be that all these should be immersed in the blood of a single bird. To dip hyssop in the water, to sprinkle with. Num. xix. 18. To dip a portion of bread in In the New Testament the word, in various forms, occurs eighty times; fifty-seven with reference to persons. Of these fifty-seven times, it is followed by "in" (v) 18 times, as in water, in the desert, in Jordan; 9 times by "into" (es), as into the name, &c., into Christ; once it is followed by T (Acts ii. 38.) and twice by "for" (TEL). 1 Cor. xv. 29. The following remarks may be made in view of the investigation of the meaning of this word. 1st. That in baptism it is possible, perhaps probable, that the notion of dipping would be the one that would occur to a Jew. 2d. It would not occur to him that the word meant of necessity to dip entirely, or completely to immerse. 3d. The notion of washing would be the one which would most readily occur, as connected with a religious rite. See the cases of Naaman, and Mark vii. 4. (Greek.) 4th. It cannot be proved from an examination of the passages in the Old and New Testaments, that the idea of a complete immersion ever was connected with the word, or that it ever in any case occurred. If they went into the water, still it is not proved by that, that the only mode of baptism was by immersion, as it might have been by pouring, though they were in the water. 5th. It is not positively enjoined anywhere in the New Testament that the only mode of baptism shall be by an entire submersion of the body under water. Without tion of vipers, who hath warned you! to flee from the wrath to come? Is 59.5. c.12.34. 23.33. Lu.3.7. b Je.51.6. Ro.1.18. such a precept, it cannot be made obligatory on people of all ages, nations, and climes, even if it were probable that in the mild climate of Judea it was the usual mode. The river Jordan is the eastern boundary of Palestine or Judea. It rises in mount Lebanon, on the north of Palestine, and runs in a southerly direction, under ground, for thirteen miles, and then bursts forth with a great noise at Cesarea Philippi. It then unites with two small streams, and runs some miles farther, and empties into the lake Merom. From this small lake it flows 13 miles, and then falls into the lake Gennesareth, otherwise called the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee. Through the middle of this lake, which is 15 miles long and from 6 to 9 broad, it flows undisturbed, and preserves a southerly direction for about 70 miles, and then falls into the Dead Sea. The Jordan, at its entrance into the Dead Sea, is about ninety feet wide. It flows in many places with great rapidity, and when swollen by rains pours like an impetuous torrent. It formerly regularly overflowed its banks in time of harvest, that is, in March, in some places six hundred paces. Josh. iii. 15. 1 Chron. xii. 15. These banks are covered with small trees and shrubs, and afford a convenient dwelling for wild beasts. Allusion is often made to these thickets in the sacred scriptures. Jer. xlix. 19; 1.44. 7. Pharisees and Sadducees. The Jews were divided into three great sects, the Pharisees; the Sadducees; and the Essenes. In addition to these, some smaller sects are mentioned in the New Testament, and by Josephus: the Herodians, probably political friends of Herod; the Galileans, a branch of the Pharisees; and the Therapeutæ, a branch of the Essenes, but converts from the Greeks. The principal of these sects are supposed to have originated about 150 years before Christ, as they are mentioned by Josephus at about that time in his history. Of course nothing is said of them in the Old Testament, as that was finished 8 Bring forth therefore fruits · meet for repentance: 1 or, answerable to amendment of life. about 400 years before the Christian era. I. THE PHARISEES were the most numerous and wealthy sect of the Jews. They derived their name from the Hebrew word Pharash, which signifies to set apart, or to separate, because they separated themselves from the rest of their countrymen, and professedly devoted themselves to peculiar strictness in religion. Their leading tenets were the following:-that the world was governed by fate, or by a fixed decree of God; that the souls of men were immortal, and were either eternally happy or miserable beyond the grave; that the dead would be raised; that there were angels, good and bad; that God was under obligation to bestow peculiar favor on the Jews; and that they were justified by the merits of Abraham or by their own conformity to the law. They were proud, haughty, self-right eous, and held the common people in great disrespect. John vii. 49. They sought the offices of the state, and af fected great dignity. They were os tentatious in their religious worship, praying in the corners of the streets, and seeking publicity in the bestowment of alms. They sought principally external cleanliness; and dealt much in ceremonial ablutions and washing. Some of the laws of Moses they maintained very strictly. In addition to the written laws, they held to a multitude which they maintained had come down from Moses by tradition. These they felt themselves as much bound to observe as the written law. Under the influence of these laws, they washed themselves before meals with great scrupulousness; they fasted twice a week on Thursday, when they supposed Moses ascended mount Sinai, and on Monday, when he descended; they wore broad phylacteries, and en larged the fringe or borders of their garments; they loved the chief rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues. They were in general a corrupt, hypocritical, office-seeking, haughty class of men. There are, however, some honorable exceptions |