with that of the old world, when the family of Noah were faved by water; and then adds, "the like figure whereunto, even baptifm, doth now fave us."

one".

The strength and vehemence, in the language of John, evidently denote the extremity of that wrath, which he predicted. "And now alfo," he cries, in a fubfequent clause, "the ax is laid to the root of the trees." This denuntiation correfponded to foregoing prophecies. "Lebanon fhall fall by a mighty Jerufalem fhall become heaps, and the mountain of the Lord's house, as the high places of the forest"— and, "the day that cometh shall burn them up, it shall leave them neither root nor branch". "every tree therefore, the Baptift proceeds, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Their beauty had been more than once given into the hand of the enemy; but now the ax was laid to the root itself, which had hitherto escaped, and the downfall of Ifrael impended.

The present tense denotes the nearnefs and certainty of the event. 80 Hôn xã Ta · ἐκκόπτεται –βάλλεται. See Schmid ad. 1. The first judicial act of Chrift, i. e. the destruction of the Jews, and not the last Judgement of the world, feems here predicted.

W

This was a warning of great terror; and the Baptist appeared in "that garb of mourning, and obferved that rigour and severity of life, which were likely to enforce moft deeply his prophecy of evil tidings.

It was, indeed, commonly believed, at the time, that the ruin of the Jewish state was predicted in the Scriptures; and, in the days of the Baptift, it was not fuppofed to be very remote. Upon this account, his words were likely to be referred by his audience to that event; and it might have been faid, against the credit of his divine miffion, that he only borrowed, and appropriated, the predictions of the early prophets.

But it may be argued, as it feems, upon fufficient ground, that he did not barely repeat the fubftance of foregoing prophecies, but really spoke from divine revelation,vouchfafed to himself.

The voice of prophecy, immediately before it ceafed in Ifrael, denounced a day of total burning, a "great and dreadful day of the

y

" Probably, according to Macknight, the fackcloth of penitents and mourners. 1 Chron. xxi. 16.

w Math. xi. 18.

"The Romans will come and take away our place and nation, John xi. 48."

y Malachi iv. 5.

Lord;"

Lord;" at the fame time, intimating to the people, that univerfal converfion in heart, upon the preaching of Elijah, before that day of wrath, fhould prevent the curfe from coming to fmite the earth.

The woe, here denounced, had not been fulfilled, when prophecy openly revived in John. He repeated the threatening, and intimated the means of deliverance fo far Malachi and the Baptift agree. But that prophet mentions the means of deliverance in figurative and general terms; on the contrary, John uses plain language and great precifion. He named the baptifm of repentance for remiffion of fins, as the fafeguard, appointed for those who would receive it. The advantage is ftriking on the part of the Baptift. He spoke to the fame effect, as Malachi and other prophets, that wrath impended upon Ifrael but he added, that his baptifm was a fecurity from it; and that, in the nature of a privilege, as well as an obligation, it fet a fign upon those who received it, and placed them within that remnant, which God would fpare. This particularity may appear fufficient to juftify the affertion of St. Luke, that "the word of the Lord came unto John," as the repetition of a former

:

prediction, with new and additional circumstances, if afterwards accomplished, appears a plain evidence of his prophetical character.

To strengthen the impreffion, which his offer of baptifm might make upon his audience, he affured them, that they were entirely destitute of any other fafeguard. "Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father." Descent from this favoured patriarch was the principal ground of their confidence. In pursuance of the divine promise to their great progenitor, the kingdoms of Canaan had really become the lot of their inheritance. And from this they argued, with confidence, to all the promises, made to Abraham in favour of his children. They accordingly affumed an exclufive interest in * all the divine bleffings, and expected certain immunity from all the divine judgements, during the age of the Meffias. But this notion of their hereditary privilege was declared entirely groundless; not indeed because the purpose of God was changed, and the fons of Abraham were difinherited by a repeal of

a

z Pocock. Mifcell. pag. 172. 227.-Pugio Fidei 951. They entirely overlooked the conditional and threatning turn of the promife. Exod. xix. 5. See Ltghtfoot. Vol. II. 533. fq.et fup. 398. Nehem. ii. 20. Juft. Mart. D. pag. 469, cited by Whitby.

the

the promise; for the language of the Baptist implies, that the bleffing would really defcend to the children of the patriarch. But, in fact, the Jewish conftruction falfified the promife. It was given to the fons of Abraham, in one sense, and they, as his descendants, expected to inherit it in another. The real nature of the inheritance, and the genuine fonship to the patriarch, required in the heirs, were implied in the latitude of the promise, which was originally extended to all families of the earth. The tenor of it was, multiplying I will multiply thee;' fo that one part of Abraham's bleffing confifted in the infinite number of his children. Since the bleffing was univerfal, the fonfhip to Abraham, on which it would devolve, must also be univerfal, and, confequently, could not be a natural one, as the Jews fuppofed. It remained therefore a question, in which all families of the earth had an equal intereft, whether they had Abraham for their father in that fenfe, which the promise required, or only in another, which it excluded. And erelong, according to the

Lake xiii. 16. xix. 9.-Lightfoot. Vol II. 467. • Heb. vi. 14.

See Whitby Rom. ix. 8.