are

wilderness repentance, is uncertain; some extend it to three years, or even three and a half, but Mr. Greswell has satisfied me that it did not exceed six months. It is inconsistent, he conceives, with the subordination of John to Christ, that his ministry should be as long as that of his Master; and his only office was to prepare the nation for his coming, for which the shorter period would be sufficiently long. It is not credible that he should have been three years baptizing and making converts, before the Sanhedrim should have thought of asking by what right he acted. The particulars of his ministry a few, and the scene of it from first to last the same—the plain of Jordan. Again, the history of our Lord, up to the commencement of his ministry, runs parallel to that of the Baptist, with the distance of six months between them; and there is the same reason to conclude, that they would both enter upon their offices at the same age. Supposing that the personal ministry of John, succeeded and perpetuated by that of Christ, was necessary to the fulfilment of Daniel's half-week of years, and that the latter lasted four consecutive passovers, precisely three years, we have six months for that of John.

PART II.

16. Jesus comes to John for Baptism. Matt. iii. Luke iii. WHILE the public expectation had been raised by John, this superior Teacher, whom he came to announce, offered himself for baptism. Luke says, that Jesus was then beginning to be about thirty years of age; we may then conclude, that, as he would have completed that time at the passover of 27, April 9, he was baptized in the early spring of the same year. Being free from sin, he could not repent, nor had he any need

of reformation, yet he thought fit to honour this baptism as a divine institution; and though in himself of immaculate purity, deriving no taint from Adam, it might become him to be baptized, as the representative of his corrupt race. John, conscious of the purity and superior dignity of Jesus, hesitated to perform an office, which seemed to mark superiority ; nor did he consent, till admonished, that it was an ordinance which it became them both to fulfil. The reason has not been recorded, but it may be considered as a formal consecration to his office, in the same manner as, under the ancient dispensation, the high-priest required ablution, previous to his inauguration. When John afterwards announced him to his disciples as the Lamb of God, he declares that he knew him not till the Spirit pointed him out as such, by descending and remaining on him. Some, taking the expression in the strictest sense, suppose, that, though they were relations, and their mothers friends, it was arranged that they should have no personal acquaintance, that the Baptist's testimony might be placed beyond suspicion. Yet, upon this supposition, it is not easy to conceive why he should have hesitated to baptize him, as the sign was given afterwards; and this apparent dissonance between the Evangelists Matthew and John may perhaps be best reconciled, by distinguishing between knowing the person and the office. Thus the Jews knew Jesus as the reputed Nazarene, the son of Joseph, but not as the Christ; and Jesus himself said afterwards, John xiv. 9." Philip, have I been so long time with thee, and hast thou not known me?" As Jesus went up straightway from the river, he prayed, probably for the influence of the Spirit to render his ministry acceptable and efficacious, when the heavens were opened; which seems to mean, that the glory, or bright light, accompanying a manifestation of the Deity, appeared, and the Holy Spirit descended with the fluttering motion, and probably in the appearance of a dove, while a voice proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Thus in the baptism of our great High Priest, there was an exhibition to the senses of the three Persons in the ever-blessed

Trinity, each acting according to the economy of the scheme of redemption, the Father appointing the Son to be Mediator, the Son accepting the appointment, and the Holy Spirit anointing him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, and qualifying him for the work he had undertaken. Thus the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him in all its fulness, being not given to him by measure, as to his apostles, to whom its gifts were divided. This voice was again repeated at the transfiguration, and, for the third time, at the close of his ministry, after he had been proclaimed the Christ by the multitude, when for their sakes, to confirm their faith, he prayed in their hearing, "Father, glorify thy name." Thus was our Lord consecrated to his high office, by one who was universally honoured; and God confirmed the appointment, but whether to the Baptist alone, or in the presence of others, is doubtful.

17. The Temptation. Matt. iv. Mark i. Luke iv.

An interval of solitary meditation before he entered upon the duties of his active and painful course was a proper preparation. The Spirit therefore impelled him to withdraw into the desert; and here, like Moses previous to his receiving the Law, and Elijah when called upon to restore it, he endured a fast of forty days among wild animals, far from the haunts of men. During the whole of this period he was tempted by the evil spirit; but only the three assaults with which he tried him at its expiration are recorded, either as more violent than his other wicked suggestions, or as more suitable for our instruction, who here see our Master's triumph over the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life. The conflict had no human witness, it must therefore have been revealed at the proper season, in order to be recorded for the edification of the Church; and though we pretend not to be able to fathom the depths of this mysterious transaction, we can perceive with the light afforded us by the Epistle to the Hebrews, that it behoved him in this, as in other respects, to be made like unto his brethren; and that as

our progenitors yielded to the first temptation, and thereby transmitted to their whole posterity their depraved nature, it was fit that our new federal Head should, before he entered upon his office, encounter and triumph over the tempter. We are hereby taught, that there is no impiety so gross which the Devil will not tempt the best of men to commit; and we have the consolation of knowing, that our Master has had an experimental knowledge of the temptations that try his people, and that not only having been proved to be without sin, he is able to succour them that are tempted, but that he can also sympathize with their infirmities. Our gratitude is increased by this record of what he unseen endured for our sakes, in addition to his poverty and his sufferings, which met the public eye, for he suffered, being tempted, and the suggestions of the tempter would cause him distress in proportion to his purity. His great example also teaches us, when exposed to the fiery darts of the spiritual adversary, to resist him by watchfulness, prayer, and a right use of the word of God.

The perfect human nature of our Lord was incapable of sinful thoughts; and this is sufficient answer to those, who would explain the temptation as an allegorical representation of the suggestions that occurred to him, to abuse his delegated power as the means of personal gratification. Others conceive, that the whole passed in a vision; but there is no intimation that favours this opinion in any of the three narratives, and no more reason to deny that it literally took place as described than the temptation of Eden, and indeed it seems fit that both should be considered as similar transactions. The Devil, we assume then, appeared in a visible and probably a human form; he knew that the fate of man depended upon the conduct of his representative, and that by his failure, the scheme of redemption would be frustrated. Our Lord's appetite returned, in a place where no food could be procured by ordinary means, and no suffering is probably more severe than extreme hunger. How great then is the trial to one who has it in his power to remove it! The evil spirit, called in this narrative by the three names that characterise

him, the tempter, the accuser, and the enemy, chose therefore this crisis for his most subtle assault. The first Adam had been tempted in a garden, and prevailed upon to eat one forbidden fruit, when he might innocently have satisfied his appetite with all the rest; but the second Adam met the enemy in a barren wilderness, and thus gave him his full advantage. Satan tempts him to distrust the providence of God, and to provide for his support by that miraculous power with which he had been entrusted, not for his own use, but for the promotion of the work which he had undertaken. He insidiously transforms himself, as it were, into an angel of light. The danger of the temptation appears in its plausibility; he did not urge him to create a feast for indulgence, but to change a stone into a loaf, that he might not perish with hunger, and might satisfy himself that he had not been mistaken in supposing himself the Son of God. Consent would have shown distrust of God's providence and promise, and a disposition to use improper means of relief. It was his duty to wait patiently; and so Jesus told him in the words of the Law. The life of man depends upon the will of God; he can find food for him, or, if he pleases, support him without it. As in other quotations in the New Testament, the force of his reply is not fully perceived without a reference to the context. The chosen people, with a promise of entering Canaan, were also in a desert, which could not maintain them by its produce, and therefore they were fed by miracle; "He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This reply therefore repelled the temptation, and the tempter was overcome by the "sword of the Spirit." Thus we see that the Devil is too crafty to begin by tempting established believers to gross and evident wickedness; and when he finds them still relying, notwithstanding their distress and difficulties, upon God's goodness, determined to suffer rather than seek relief by sin, he changes his ground, as in the second