"I indeed baptize you with water;" my baptifm, like my preaching, is preparatory only, leading to another baptifm of the Spirit, which shall cleanse the fouls of penitents from every thing that defileth, through faith in Meffiah and his heavenly doctrine. And this Meffiah is not afar off, as you may imagine him to be; there ftandeth one among you, whom ye know not;" he ap

66

2

pears like other men, lowly, unat tended, undiftinguished; he doth not, as yet, think proper to manifeft his power and glory; but hereafter. you will find him to be far other than he feems. As to myself, of whom fome are pleased to entertain an high opinion, I am nothing: "This is he, who, coming after me, is pre

"ferred

"ferred before me," as much as the greatest master is preferred before the meaneft of his fervants, who is deemed.. unworthy to perform the least office about his perfon; "the latchet of. "whofe fhoes I am not worthy to "unloofe." This teftimony did St. John give to the Saviour of the world, in the audience of the priests, and Levites, and the people, "at "Bethabara beyond Jordan, where "he was baptizing." Intent upon humbling himself, that his great Lord and Mafter might be exalted, he declared himself a meffenger only, fent to prepare his

ways; and every thing

in him, and about him, fpoke the fame language.

"THE next day," an opportunity. offered itfelf of pointing out the per-` fon

fon of Jefus to the people; "John "feeth Jefus coming unto him,” probably, to acknowledge him as his friend, relation, and precurfor; "and "faith, Behold the Lamb of God, "which taketh away the fin of the "world" Behold that bleffed perfon prefigured in the law, and foretold by the prophets; one that is all meeknefs and innocence, patience and refignation, without offence in his mouth, without guile or malice in his heart, without fpot or blemish in foul or body; the Lamb, which Abraham told his fon Ifaac, that God would in time provide; the Lamb, by the sprinkling of whofe blood, true Ifraelites are preferved from the deftroyer; the facrifice, on which are laid the iniquities of us all; the

P

the Saviour, who, by expiating, taketh away the fin of the world, and conferreth righteoufnefs on them that will believe in him, and accept it from him, being conformed to his example of meeknefs and lowlinefs. This, O all ye that behold him, "this is he of whom I faid, after me. "cometh a man which is preferred

"before me, for he was,

for he was," he existed,

ages before me," even from the be-. ginning; he is fairer than the chil-. dren of men, full of grace and truth; of divine glory, and celeftial beauty.

To guard againft any fufpicion of collufion* between two perfons, who,

* See the impoffibility of any fuch collufion fully demonftrated by the Reverend Mr., Bell, in his exact and elaborate Enquiry into the Divine Miffions of John the Baptist and Jefus Chrift,

as

�¢

as relations, might be supposed to act in concert, and favour each other's pretenfions, St. John adds, "And I knew him not, but he that fent me to baptize with water, the fame faid unto me, Upon whom thou shalt fee the Spirit defcending and remaining on him, the fame is he "which baptizeth with the Holy "Ghoft."

FROM this paffage we learn, that the visible defcent of the Spirit was the fign given to St. John, whereby he was to know the Meffiah. Jefus was brought up at Nazareth; St. John was educated in the defarts; and it feems to have been fo ordered by Providence, that no interview had paffed between them, after they had arrived at years of maturity. When Jefus,

P 2