The testimony that the Baptist gave to Christ. 105 xvi. 16 And to conclude: that we may be prepared for that final trial, SECT. let us be earnest in our applications to our gracious Redeemer, that as we are baptized with water in his name, he would also Ver. baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire; that, by the operations of his Holy Spirit on our cold and stupid hearts, he would enkindle and quicken that Divine life, that sacred love, that flaming, yet well-governed zeal for his glory, which distinguishes the true Christian from the hypocritical professor, and is indeed the seal of God set upon the heart to mark it for eternal happiness. SECT. XVII. The testimony John the Baptist gave to Christ is taken notice of by JOHN J. 15. JOHN bare witness JOHN I. 15. of him, and cried, AS the Messiah now ferred before me, he was before me: for xvii. John was shortly to appear, SECT. saying, This was he of and the time just at hand in which he was to whom I spake, He that enter on his public ministry, the way (as we have cometh after me is pre- seen) was opened for his coming by John the 1. 15. Baptist's being sent to preach the doctrine of repentance: and when the people came in crowds from every part to hear him, John bore his testimony of him in a public declaration of the dignity of his person and of the great design for which he was to come; which, though it was at first expressed in general terms, yet did he afterwards apply it in particular to Jesus of Nazareth, pointing him out to be the person he had spoken of; and, with an earnestness that suited the importance of this grand occasion, he openly proclaimed him to be the promised Messiah, and cried, saying, This is the person that I told you of; and this is he of whom I said before, (Mat. iii. 11.) He that cometh after me, as to a This was he of whom I said.] This probably might happen at the time when Jesus made his first appearance among those that came to be baptized by John; when at his offering to receive his baptism; though John before had been a stranger to him, and knew him not by any personal acquaintance with him, yet, by some powerful impression on his mind, he presently discerned that this was he whom he before had taught the people to expect and of whose person he had given them so high a character. For it was plainly from his knowledge of him that John at first would have declined baptizing him, as an honour of which he looked upon himself to be unworthy. Nor is t to be doubted, the but that when he first knew the person, b He 106 xvii. John The testimony that the Baptist gave to Christ. SECT. the time of his appearance in the world and of his entrance on the stage of public life, is upon all accounts superior to me, and is deservedly 1. 15. preferred before me; for, though indeed as to his human birth he is younger than me, and did not come into the world till a little after me, yet, in a much more noble and exalted kind of being he existed long before me, or even before the production of any creature whatsoever. 16 16 And of his ful ceived, and grace for And I John the apostle, who had the honour of being numbered among his most intimate ness have all we refriends would, with pleasure, in my own name, grace. and that of my brethren, add my testimony to that of the Baptist, as I and they have the greatest reason to do: for of his overflowing fulness have we all received whatever we possess, as men, as Christians, or as apostles; and he hath given us even grace upon grace, a rich abundance and variety of favours, which will ever make his name most dear and precious to our souls. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 17 For the law was given by Moses, and we own b He existed long before me; wpuls .] This must undoubtedly refer to that state of glory in which Christ existed before his incarnation, of which the Baptist speaks so plainly, Jo. iii. 31. as abundantly to justify the paraphrase (compare note bon John i. 30. sect. 21.) As for the preceding clause, εμπροσθέν με γεγονεν, which we render, is preferred before me, I think Erasmus truly expresses the sense of it in supposing it to refer to those distinguishing honours which had been paid to Christ in his infancy, by prophets, sages and angels too, which nothing that had yet occurred in the life of John could by any means equal. c I add my testimony to that of the Baptist.] It is most evident that what is said here in this verse, as Chrysostom justly observes, must be considered as the words of the evangelist. John the Baptist had never yet mentioned the name of Jesus; and the expression we all shews it could not be his words; for those to whom he addressed himself do not appear to have received grace pardon from Christ. The last French version, with great propriety, includes ver. 15 in a parenthesis, and so connects this 16th verse with the 14th ;-as if it had been said, He dwelt among us-full of grace and truth;—and of his fulness have we all received. d Grace upon grace.] This seems the most easy sense of xagi ali xaçi, as T' anaranaç is grief upon grief. Theogn. v. 344.) Compare Ecclus. xxvi. 15-17. and see Blackwall's Sacred Classics, Vol. I. p. 164. Next to this I should prefer Grotius's interpretation, who would render it grace of mere grace: that is, the freest grace imaginable. eCome by Jesus Christ.] I cannot lay so much stress on the word tyvel here, as opposed to don, as to suppose it, with Erasmus, to imply, that whereas Moses was only the messenger of the law, Christ was the original of the grace and truth he brought into the world by the gospel; since all that is intended by lo is nothing more than that it was, or that it came, by Jesus Reflections on the fulness of the grace of Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at any time; the Only - Begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, 107 SECT. xvii. pardon and an abundant effusion of the Spirit, IMPROVEMENT. HAPPY are they that (like this beloved apostle), when they Ver. hear the praises of Christ uttered by others, can echo back the 16 testimony from their own experience, as having themselves received of his fulness! May an abundance of grace be communicated from him to us! We are not straitened in him; oh, may we not be straitened in ourselves; but daily renewing our application to him as our Living Head, may vital influences be continually imparted to our souls from him! With pleasure let us compare the dispensation of Jesus with 17 that of Moses, and observe the excellency of its superior grace and of its brighter truth: but let us remember, as a necessary consequence of this, that if the despisers of Moses's law died without mercy, they shall be thought worthy of a much sorer punishment and a more aggravated condemnation who tread under foot the Son of God. (Heb. x. 28, 29.) May we ever regard him as the Only-Begotten of the Father; 18 and, since he hath condescended so far as to come down from his very bosom to instruct us in his nature and will, let us with all humility receive his dictates and earnestly pray that, under his revelations and teachings, we may so know God as faithfully to serve him now and, at length, eternally to enjoy him. Jesus Christ, according to the sense in which the word is often used in other places; and dia here is used of Christ as well as of Moses: so that both are represented as messengers, though of very different dispensations. f In the bosom of the Futher.] Critics generally agree this is one of the places in which is put for ; but had it here been rendered near his Father's bosom, it SECT. might as well have answered the design a When 108 Christ comes to John from Nazareth in Galilee. SECT. xviii. I. 9. SECT. XVIII. Christ is baptized by John, and the holy Spirit descends upon him in a visible form. Mark I. 9-11. Mat. III. 13. to the end; Luke III. 21—23. MARK I. 9. AND it came to pass in those days, when great retired а MARK I. 9. AND it came to [LUKE, when all the pass in those days Mark the Jewish people were baptized, that Jesus people were baptized] came from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee where he had lived for many years in [unto John, to be manner with his parents, to the river Jordan; baptized of him] and and applied himself to John, that he might be bap- was baptized of John in Jordan. [MAT. III. tized by him and was accordingly baptized by 13. LUKE III. 21. John in Jordan, near Bethabara; (see John i. 28. sect. 20.) 14 MAT. III. 14. But John forbade him, say Now the providence of God had so ordered it, to prevent all appearance of a combination ing, I have need to be between them, that John was personally a baptized of thee, and stranger to Christ. (John i. 33.) But neverthe- comest thou to me? less, as soon as he saw him, he received a secret intimation from above that this was the Messiah upon whom the Spirit should visibly descend; (see the note on Jolin i. 33. sect. 21.) And, upon this account, such was the modesty of John that he was ready to decline the service, and would a When all the people were baptized.] John continued baptizing so long after this, that it is very evident the word all must be taken with the restriction used in the paraphrase, as it is oftentimes in other places. b Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee.] The learned Dr. Thomas Jackson, in his elaborate examination of this context (see his works, vol. II. p. 515-519), supposes that John the Baptist, inquiring into and hearing the name of Jesus, and the place from whence he came, and comparing it in his own mind with that celebrated prophecy, Isa. xi. 1, 2. concluded that this Jesus, or Divine Saviour, as the word may signify (see noted on Mat. i. 21. p. 52.) coming from Nazareth, the town of Rods, as the etymology of that name imports, was the rod out of the stem of Jesse, upon whom the Spirit should descend, and rest like a dove on a branch. And thus he would reconcile John's address to Christ as so extraordinary a person, Mat. iii. 14, with his declaring (John i. 31, 33.) that he knew him not before: but this seems a very precarious solution, considering how possible have it might be that in so large a place as Nazareth there might be several persons of the name of Jesus or Joshua, so very common among the Jews. It appears therefore much more reasonable to have recourse to the solution given in the paraphrase and note d on the last cited text, sect. 21. that he had a secret intimation given him who it was that came to be baptized by him; and all that this very ingenious writer has said to shew the various marks by which John might know Christ, without supposing such a particular revelation as is there suggested, does but confirm me the more in the necessity of admitting it. That he might be baptized by him.] By this he intended to do an honour to John's ministry, and to conform himself to what he appointed to his followers: for which last reason it was that he drank likewise of the sacramental cup. And this we may consider as a plain argument that baptism may be administered to those who are not capable of all the purposes for which it was designed. See Dr. Whitby's note on Mat. iii. 16. d The 15 And Jesus answering, said unto him, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righte Suffer it to be so now; ousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of And is baptized by John in Jordan. 109 SECT. xviii. have hindered him from doing what he proposed; And after Jesus was baptized, as soon as he 16 ing [LUKE, in a bodi d The heavens were immediately opened.] I think it plain (as Grotius and Blackwall have observed) that what is here intended is to intimate, that directly on his coming up out of the water the heavens were opened: for it must certainly appear to be a circumstance of small importance, and of very little use, for the evangelist to say that Jesus went up straightway out of the water after he was baptized; but, if we take it in the other way, it very fitly introduces the remarkable account of what directly followed it. There seems to be such a transposition of the word ws, Mark i. 29. and xi. 2. See Blackwall's Sacred Classics, Vol. I. p. 89. e As he was praying.] It is observable that all the three voices from heaven, by which the Father bore witness to Christ, were pronounced while he was praying, or very quickly after it. Compare Luke ix. 29.-35. and John xii. 28. He saw the Spirit of God.] There is VOL. VI. motion no question to be made but that this won- g In a corporeal form.] This is the ex- |