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the ancients do particularly express by light. Yet are they both nothing but darkness to us, till the same light shine in our hearts: for till then, we are nothing but darkness ourselves, and therefore the most luminous things are so to us: noonday is as midnight to a blind man. And we use these ordinances, the word and the sacrament, without profit and comfort for the most part, because we have not of that Divine light within us; and we have it not, because we ask it not, are not often there where it is to be had, nor earnest suitors for it for we have His word that cannot fail, that our Heavenly Father will give even this choice gift, this light, (for that is it,) His Holy Spirit to them that ask it. Then would word and sacrament be sweet to us, which now are so lifeless and unsavoury.

Ver. 2. We have in the following words the sum of his doctrine: Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. In the point of time and the way of his ministry, he was indeed singular, yet, the substance of his doctrine is the same with those that went before, and those that came after him. All the prophets preached repentance, and joined in the prediction of this kingdom of God; and our Saviour himself, and his disciples, as you will after find, preached not only this same doctrine, but even in the same words: only this he had particular, that he stood betwixt the two, as it were, the link of law and gospel, as one calls him, and was the first that said, The kingdom of God is at hand, and pointed it out as come while he was speaking.

Repent.] This is the main purport and end of God's messages to man in all times, by all whom He hath sent, (as has been already said,) prophets, apostles, Jesus Christ and his forerunner; and still, all His ministers under the gospel, have no other in effect to say, than to call men to repentance, to bring them home to God. Man is naturally turned from God, and is still further running away and hastening to the pit; and God is calling after him, Do not destroy yourselves, I will receive and pardon you; Oh! return, why will ye

away

die? And yet, men will not hearken, but run to their ruin. This word is daily preached; and yet, who almost is persuaded so much as to stop his course a little and consider what is propounded to him, much less to break off his course and return? Oh, the bountifulness and graciousness of God, who thus entreats, and still entreats base worms, whom He might tread on and crush in a moment! Oh, the wretchedness and madness of man who refuses, and still refuses those gracious entreaties! You have been called to in these terms, and where are they that return? Where are hearts breaking for their iniquities, and breaking away from them, mourning after the Lord, and longing for a look of His countenance, and desiring nothing else? Oh! that some soul might now be stirred up, and set but upon thoughts of repenting, serious, real thoughts that would not die! The Lord will reach forth his hand and draw it to himself, though it find it cannot stir; yea, in that very desire of returning to him, he hath prevented it and touched it, and will not lose it, will not suffer it, and his begun work in it, to perish.

For the kingdom of Heaven.] Ay, this is the attractive, that which puts life and hope into the soul. Jesus Christ, peace and reconcilement in him to God, this is the kingdom of Heaven. And here it was at hand, and it came, and was published through the world. And throughout all ages of it, the Gospel is at hand, in the gracious offers of it to all that hear the word, and it is brought into the souls that believingly receive the word, and Jesus Christ revealed in it. This gives both hope to the sinner, and stirs up desires. Were there not a way of receiving him, it were in vain to call men to return; but seeing there is a ransom found, seeing the way is opened up, who is there that have eyes opened to behold that mercy, that will delay any longer, that will not hasten into it, and lay hold upon it?

The Gospel is not a doctrine of licentiousness, but the pure and sweet word of that new life which is in Christ. And though in the notion of repentance, there is an aspect to, and use of

the Law, convincing of sin and death, and working a sense of misery and sorrow from that sense, yet, all this it works most sweetly and kindly, contempered with, and adapted by, the doctrine of the Gospel; for in this they mix and agree, and throughout all the Scriptures of both Testaments, run combined, as they do in the words of this sermon here. For this is the sum of the Law and the Gospel as they now stand to us-ward; Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Nothing is so powerful as the doctrine of free grace to convert a soul, not excluding convincements of sin by the Law, but so including them that that deadly, killing sentence, thus prepared, becomes excellently medicinal; (as the treats that are made of viper's flesh;) the Law, in regard of condemning power, being now dead, and not only dead, but so qualified by the cordial promises of the Gospel, that it does not really condemn, but only shews condemnation out of Christ, and so causes the soul to close with Christ, and find salvation and life with him as the dead viper's flesh so compounded, hath a secret virtue to advance the working of those ingredients that are in the composition against poison.

For the kingdom, &c.] This is the logic and rhetoric of the Scripture, to persuade holiness and repentance by the grace and pardon revealed in the Gospel. Those beams of love and free mercy are most powerful to melt the heart. Now, says he, the great Messias is at hand. He is come: whatsoever have been men's ways before, now they may come home unto God in him. And will not they, seeing he is come from heaven to save? Will they not come from the way of hell, from sin, to be saved by him?-And thus the Lord Jesus is daily set before us, and, in him, free forgiveness of all that is past; and if men will perish in multitudes, they must perish; but you that have a mind to live, come to him.

Ver. 3. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias.] His calling is further expressed and confirmed by a prophecy of him, designating him by the nature of a voice, The voice of one crying in the wilderness; and his cry is,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, &c., which suits well with the foregoing sum of his preaching, is in effect the same with it. Repent is, prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. Repentance levels the heart to God, makes it a plain for Christ to walk in, casts down the mountains of pride, and raises the soul from base, low, earthly ways and affections, smooths the rugged passions, and straights the crooked deceit of the heart, makes it sincere and straight both towards God and man. And then the reason, The kingdom of God is at hand, is implied in that, Prepare his way; that says, He is coming, is upon his way, and therefore sends his harbinger to make it fit for him. And this is our business, to be dealing with our hearts, levelling, smoothing, and straightening them for our Lord, that he may take delight to dwell and walk in them, and refresh them with his presence; and, certainly, the more holy diligence is used in suiting the heart to his holy will, the more of his sweet presence shall we enjoy.

Ver. 4. And the same John had his raiment of camels' hair.] He is further described from his habit and course of life, suiting the nature of his calling, and the strain of his preaching. A preacher of repentance, not willingly resorting to courts and cities, but keeping in the wilderness; that was not a place altogether uninhabited, but a less peopled, mountainous soil, the very place of his birth; who had his habit and diet like the place, and like the employment. Though his solitude and rough garments are a slender hold for the hermetical way magnified in the Romish church, when that of Zechariah fits better, and their clothes are sooner shaped to that pattern, where he speaks of those false tongues that wear a rough garment to deceive, Zech. xiii. 4;-yet, certainly, besides, somewhat extraordinary and singular in him and his calling, to which this was consonant, there is this for the example of all the messengers of God, to live as much as may be in their condition and station, disengaged from the world, not following the vain delights and ways of it; not bathing in the solaces

and pleasures of earth, and entangling themselves in the cares of it, but, sober, aad modest, and mortified in their way of living; making it their main business not to please the flesh, but to do service to their Lord, to walk in his ways, and prepare his way for him in the hearts of his people. Further, this was implied in this mean way of life, that the less of human grandeur, the more of Divine power, and of the majesty of God, might appear in his ministry.

Ver. 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan.] That is, great multitudes flocked to him, to hear him, and be baptized. For though Baptism, in the way he used it, was not usual, yet, their accustomed use of legal washing, made it the less strange, and the more acceptable to them. And being accompanied with the doctrine of repentance, remission of sins, and the news of the kingdom of heaven approaching, it could not choose but find some reverence and attention. But certainly, of multitudes that will run to the word, and, possibly, particularly flock after the ministry of some for a time, there may be many, as doubtless were there, that are but light stuff, carried with the stream as corks and straws are. Men should examine well even such things as seem to speak some love to religion in them, whether they be real or not. This, John does not spare to tell home to the seemingly best of those that came to him, that esteemed themselves, and were esteemed by others, more religious than the multitude. Yea, the Spirit of God directed him to deal more sharply with them than with others that came to him; they being of all others commonly most confident of self-righteousness, and therefore furthest from the true work of repentance, which humbles the soul to the dust, and lays it low in its own eyes: these sects being beyond the multitude, swelled with conceit of their own estate, he spares the rest, and pricks them sharply that the tumour may fall. It may seem somewhat strange that he entertains so roughly those that came respectfully to him, and with others were willing and desirous to hear his doctrine, and partake of his bap

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