dealings with each other. h Great multitudes came to him, confeffed their fins, and received baptifm of him as a fign of their repentance; and fuch was the opinion which they had of him upon account of

Though the fuccefs of the miniftry of John had been less than it was, yet might he not improperly be faid to turn the hearts, &c. and závla dronalisav, as he did all' that was neceffary for it. Verbs active fometimes fignify a defign and endeavour to perform a thing, whether it be accomplished or not. See Le Clerc and Whitby on Mark ix. 12. 13. and Grotius on Thess. II. ii. 4.

Non fi trecenis, quotquot eunt dies,

Amice, places illacrimabilem

Plutona tauris.

That is, placare tentes.

Horace Carm. II. 14,

Talibus Æneas ardentem et torva tuentem

Lenibat dictis animum, lacrimasque ciebat.

Virgil Æn. VI. 467.

That is, lenire tentabat ; for his endeavour was vain. By the way, torva tuentem lenibat animum is a strange expreffion. Perhaps it should be animam, the fhade or ghoft of Dido. Ει τις σε τον δίκαιον αυτίκ' ἐνθάδε Κτείνοι παρατάς, πότερα πυνθάνοι ̓ ἂν εἰ Πατήρ σ' ὁ καίνων, ἢ γίνοι ̓ ἂν ευθέως ; *El is σe leivot, if any one should attempt to kill you.

Sophocles Oed. Col. 1047

— ἔπειθεν αυτὸν ἀπολύειν λὲς Ἑβραίος. ἔπειθεν perfuadere conabatur. Jofephus Ant. II. XIII. §. 4.

Δίκαια γὰρ Τόνδ' ευτυχῶν κείνα τά με;

Sophocles Ajac. 1145.

Who endeavoured to kill me, and thought that he had killed me.

his

his fanctity and self-denial, that, though he wrought no miracles, they believed and acknowledged him to be a prophet, and thought that poffibly he might be the Meffias.

There were fome of the Jews who joined themselves to him, and became his disciples. We find them mentioned in the New Teftament, their frequent fafts, the jealoufy which they had of Chrift, and their fears that he fhould leffen the reputation of their master.

The virtue of John, too great for the age in which he lived, and the esteem which the people had for him, were the occafion of his death. Herod, whom he had reproved, being offended at the freedom which he had taken, and probably fufpecting him on account of his popularity, had thoughts of killing him; but at the fame time he feared that the people would refent it, and still retained fome remains of respect for him. Whilst he was thus in fufpenfe, having promifed the daughter of Herodias to give her any thing that she would afk, at her request he beheaded him. Thus the Baptist having performed his office, died foon after Chrift

had

had begun his miniftry. God took him then to himself, as an ancient Chriftian writer observed, that the people might no longer be divided between him and Christ, but might the more readily follow the Meffias.

The reputation of this prophet ended not with his life; the people continued to honour his memory, in so much that, when fo Herod had loft an army by a great overthrow, the Jews, as Jofephus informs us, faid that it was a divine judgment, and a just punishment inflicted upon him for putting John to death.

k

III. I proceed to fhew, thirdly, that the testimony of John the Baptist ought to be received.

He affirms that he knew Jefus to be the Meffias, and this knowledge he acquires not by any obfervations which he had made. upon the life and behaviour of Chrift, nor

· Οἶμαι δὲ καὶ διὰ 18το συγχωρηθῆναι τὴν Τελευτὴν Ιωάννα 1αχίςην γενέθαι, ὥςε πᾶσαν 18 πλήθος τὴν διάθεσιν ἐπὶ τὸν Χρισὸν μετελθεῖν, καὶ μηκέτι ταῖς περὶ ἀμφοτέρων ἑαυτές χίζεθαι γνώμαις. Chryfoft. in Joan.

Hom. xxviii.

k Antiq. XVIII. 7.

from

it

from comparing his actions with the prophecies relating to the Meffias; for at the time that he first gave his teftimony, Christ had not discovered his divine miffion, and was just entering upon his office; nor does appear that Chrift had declared any thing of it to him, or any way endeavoured to perfuade him that he was the Meffias. He is not guided by conjectures, but by fure and convincing evidence, by immediate divine revelation, and by a voice from heaven declaring Chrift to be the Son of God. He affures us that God who had feparated him from his mother's womb for his own service, and who had fent him to go before the Meffias and prepare his way, had alfo difcovered to him that Chrift was that perfon,

His record therefore depends upon his veracity, and his veracity appears unqueftionable. Many circumftances concur to add weight and authority to his teftimony, and to remove all fufpicion of enthusiasm and imposture.

For, from the obfervations which have been already made on John the Baptist, on the testimony which he gave, and on the

manner

manner in which he gave it, from these we may discover the character of a great and a good man. We see in him austerity of life, felf-denial, contempt of the pleasures and vanities of the world, an active yet difcrete zeal, a courage and conftancy arifing from true piety, and a fincere modefty and humility. He flattered not the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, but told them that they were great finners; he affumed no honours which belonged not to him; he said less of himself than he might have faid with truth, when the Jews fent messengers to ask him whether he were the Meffias, or fome prophet. His disciples were probably good men, but they had an imprudent regard for him, and for their own credit, as they were his followers, and therefore they feared that Chrift would draw all men after him, and leffen the reputation of their master; but he was not to be moved by fuch improper motives, nor did he cease to bear teftimony to Christ, and to acknowledge his own inferiority. He was appointed of God to exhort and reprove with all authority; and this office he performed towards Herod, though he

could