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house, or on the golden candlesticks | Zachary, Simeon, Anna, had premo

or tables, but to hear and oppose the doctors. He who, as God, gave them all the wisdom they had, as the Son of Man hearkens to the wisdom he had given them. He who sat in their hearts as the author of all learning and knowledge, sits in the midst of their school as an humble disciple that, by learning of them, he might teach all the younger sort humility, and due attendance upon their instructors. He could at the first have taught the great rabbins of Israel the deep mysteries of God: but because he was not yet called by his Father to the public function of a teacher, he contents himself to hear with diligence, and to ask with modesty, and to teach only by insinuation. Let those consider this which needs run as soon as they can go; and, when they find ability, think they need not stay for a further vocation of God or men.-HALL.

And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. Their eyes saw nothing but human weakness, their ears heard divine sublimity of matter; betwixt what they saw, and what they heard, they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration. And why did yenot, O ye Jewish teachers, remember, that "to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace?" Why did ye not now bethink yourselves, what the star, the sages, the angels, the shepherds,

nished you? Fruitless is the wonder that endeth not in faith; no light is sufficient where the eyes are held through unbelief or prejudice. HALL. And when they saw him, they were amazed; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy Father and I have sought thee sorrowing. Questionless, this gracious saint would not, for all the world, have willingly preferred her own attendance to that of her God: through heedlessness she does so. Her Son and Saviour is her monitor, out of his divine love reforming her natural. How is it that ye sought me ? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? Immediately before, the blessed Virgin had said, "Thy father and I have sought thee." Wherein, both according to the supposition of the world she calls Joseph the father of Christ, and, according to the fashion of a dutiful wife she names her Joseph before herself. She well knew that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business; she knew how God had dignified her beyond him; yet she says, Thy father and I sought thee. The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his mother, but, leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true, from earth to heaven, he answers, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer. How doth she now again, in her heart, renew her answer to the angel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word!"

We are all the the sons of God in another kind. Nature and the world think we should attend them. We are not worthy to say we have a Father in heaven, if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions, and employ ourselves in the services of our God.-HALL.

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Christ submitted in his humanity to a state of infancy; sanctifying that state, and shewing that, as an infant was yet, in title, king and head of the church, so infants may be members of him and it. He also, in his childhood, subjected himself to his supposed father, and to his mother, reverencing them, and obeying them, both as part of his meritorious humiliation, and to sanctify a state of subjection, and become a pattern thereof to us all. And it will greatly condemn proud rebellious children. and youth who will not obey the just government of parents (but their fleshly appetites and lusts), that the Son of God incarnate condescended to subjection.

Mary's laying up all these sayings was the working of her faith and hope, perceiving that God was going on to fulfil the promises made to

her.-BAXTER.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and

and complacence loveth all things so far as they are lovely, so approved and loved his humanity more, as it grew more in act and habit towards perfection.-Baxter.

HYMN.

Eternal source of ev'ry joy,
Well may thy praise our lips employ;
While in thy Temple we appear
Whose goodness crowns the circling year.

Seasons and months, and weeks and days,
Demand successive songs of praise;
Still be the cheerful homage paid
With opening light, and evening shade.
Here in thy house shall incense rise
As circling sabbaths bless our eyes;
Still will we make thy mercies known
Around thy board, and round our own.

O may our more harmonious tongues
In worlds unknown pursue the songs;
And in those brighter courts adore,
Where days and years revolve no more.

§ CLX.

Doddridge.

CHAP. III. 1-14.

The preaching and baptism of John,

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituræa and of the region of Trachonitis,

man. His human nature increased, as in stature, so in actual human and Lysanias the tetrarch of

knowledge, and its habits, knowing more as man than he knew in infancy.

Abilene.

2 "Annas and Caiaphas beAnd God, who by way of approbationing the high priests, the word

of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance

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for the remission of sins;

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made

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straight, and the rough ways demanded of him, saying, And shall be made smooth;

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what shall we do? And he said

6 And all flesh shall see the unto them, Do violence to no salvation of God.

7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, ' O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

man," neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

a John xi. 49, 51; & xviii. 13. Acts iv. 6.- Mat. iii. 1. Mark 1. 4.-c ch. i. 77.-d Is. xl. 3. Mat. iii. 3. Mark i. 3. John i. 23.-e Ps. xcviii. 2. Is. lii. 10. ch. ii. 10.— 37.-i ch. xi. 41. 2 Cor. viii. 14." Jam. ii. 15, 16. I John

Mat. iii. 7-1 Or, meet for.

Mat. vii. 19-h Acts il

17; & iv. 20.-k Mat. xxi 32. ch. vii. 29.

ch. xix. 8.

- Or, Put no man in fear.—m Ex. xxiii. 1. Lev, xix.

11-1 Or, allowance.

See § X. Matthew III. 1-12.

§ CLXI.

CHAP. III. 15-20.

John's testimony of Christ. Herod imprisoneth John.

15 And as the people were "in expectation, and all men

'mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

Saviour wrought miracles by himself, by his disciples; John wrought none by either. Wherein Christ meant to show himself a lord, and John a servant; and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him whose

16 John answered, saying unto them all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but one might-harbinger he was. ier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose he shall baptizeyou with the Holy Ghost and with

fire:

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17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

18 And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

19 But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

20 Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

Or, in suspense. Or, reasoned, or, debated.-n Mat. ill. 11-o Mic. iv. 12. Mat. xiii. 30.-p Mat. xiv. 3. Mark vi. 17.

READER. John answered, saying unto them all, &c. John did every way forerun Christ, not so much in the time of his birth, as in his office. Neither was there more unlikeness in their disposition and carriage, than similitude in their function. Both did preach and baptize only John baptized by himself, our Saviour by his disciples:

our

It was fit that he which had the prophets, the star, the angel, to foretell his coming into the world, should have his usher to go before him when he would notify himself to the world. John was the voice of a

crier; Christ was the Word of his Father. It was fit this voice should make a noise to the world, ere the Word of the Father should speak to it. John's note was still repentance. The axe to the root, the fan to the

floor, the chaff to the fire. As his raiment was rough, so was his tongue; and if his food was wild honey, his speech was stinging locusts. Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart. Plausibility is no fit preface to regeneration. If the heart of man had continued upright, God might have been entertained without contradiction: but violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for grace. If the great way-maker do not cut down hills, and raise up valleys, in the bosoms of men, there is no passage for Christ. Never will Christ come into that soul, where the herald of repentance hath not been before him.-HALL.

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Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. The visible kingdom of God

upon earth is but an imperfect state and condition; for, though all that are members of it are selected and taken out of the world, yet there is a great deal of mixture and dross, and many things that do offend. For,

First; there is a mixture of wicked persons with those who are really holy. Many belong to it only because their consciences are convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, although their lives are not subject to the power of it; and these are taken out of the world only as they are brought into the pale of the church, and profess the name of Christ and his religion, as distinct from all other religions in the world. And therefore we find the church, or the kingdom of heaven, in scripture, frequently compared to a net cast into the sea, gathering every kind of fish, both good and bad, Matt. xiii. 47. Both sorts are embraced in the bosom of this net, and no perfect separation can be made, until it be drawn to shore at the day of judgment; and then the good will be gathered into vessels, and the bad cast away, as it is there expressed. Again, it is compared to a floor, wherein is both chaff and wheat; and these will be mixed together until the last discriminating day, and then shall the wheat be gathered into the garner, and the chaff burned up with unquenchable fire. Again, it is compared to a field, wherein grow tares as well as corn, Matt. xiii. 24-25; which must grow together until the harvest, and then shall the tares be bound in bundles

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to be burned, and the profitable grain be gathered into the barn. This hath been, and will be, the mixed condition of God's church on earth; wherein, through hypocrisy and gross dissimulation, many that are enemies to the cross of Christ will yet go under that cognizance, and keep up a form of godliness, though they deny and hate the power thereof.

Secondly: There is even in the invisible church here on earth a great mixture too; those who have a real and vital union to Christ, and maintain a spiritual union with him, yet even they have a sad mixture of evil in all their good, of sin with all their grace and holiness, so that the church is still imperfect, not only from a mixture of persons, but from a mixture in persons; as we know but in part, so we love but in part, we fear, we obey God, but in part. And with our profession of faith we have need also to prefer that humble petition, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Mark ix. 24-HOPKINS.

Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done. (See Matthew xiv. 1-12, with the commentary; § 47) added yet this above all that he shut up John in prison.-We commonly reckon the greatness of sin by the abruptness of our advance to it. Possibly, it would seem a horrid thing, at the first rising of a temptation in our hearts, if we should presently perpetrate the utmost of it into act. Therefore, the method of sin is more

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