tize with the Holy Ghost; and that therefore he witnessed, that this was the Son of God, the Messiah' and chap. iii., they came to John the Baptist, and tell him, that Jesus baptized, and that all men went to him. John answers, He has his authority from heaven: you know I never said, I was the Messiah, but that I was sent before him: he must increase, but I must decrease; for God hath sent him, and he speaks the words of God, and God hath given all things into the hands of his Son; ' and he that believes on the Son hath eternal life.' The same doctrine, and nothing else, but what was preached by the apostles afterwards; as we have seen all through the Acts, v. g. that Jesus was the Messiah. And that it was that John bears witness of our Saviour, as Jesus himself says, John, v. 33.

53. This also was the declaration that was given of him at his baptism, by a voice from heaven : This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;' which was a declaration of him to be the Messiah; the Son of God being (as we have showed) understood to signify the Messiah. To which we may add the first mention of him after his conception, in the words of the angel to Joseph: Thou shalt call his name Jesus,' or Saviour; 'for he shall save his people from their sins.' It was a received doctrine in the Jewish nation, that at the coming of the Messiah all their sins should be forgiven them. These words therefore of the angel we may look on as a declaration that Jesus was the Messiah; whereof these words, his people, are a further mark; which suppose him to have a people, and consequently to be a king.

54. After his baptism, Jesus himself enters upon his ministry. But before we examine what it was he proposed to be believed, we must observe, that there is a threefold declaration of the Messiah: 1.

By miracles. The spirit of prophecy had now for many ages forsaken the Jews; and though their commonwealth were not quite dissolved, but that they lived under their own laws, yet they were under a foreign dominion, subject to the Romans. In this state, their account of the time being up, they were in expectation of the Messiah, and of deliverance by him in a kingdom he was to set up, according to their ancient prophecies of him; which gave them hopes of an extraordinary man yet to come to God, who with an extraordinary and divine power and miracles, should evidence his mission, and work their deliverance. And of any such extraordinary person, who should have the power of doing miracles, they had no other expectation but only of their Messiah. One great prophet and worker of miracles, and only one more, they expected, who was to be the Messiah. And therefore we see the people justified their 'believing in him,' that is, their believing him to be the Messiah, because of the miracles he did; ' and many of the people believed in him, and said, When the Messiah cometh, will he do more miracles than this man hath done?' And when the Jews, at the feast of dedication, coming about him, said unto him, How long dost thou make us doubt? If thou be the Messiah, tell us plainly; Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not the works that I do in my Father's name, bear witness of me. And John, v. 36, he says, 'I have a greater witness than that of John; for the

works which the Father hath given me to do, the same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.' Where, by the way, we may observe, that his being sent by the Father,' is but another way of expressing the Messiah ; which is evident from this place here, John, v., compared with that of John, x., last quoted for there he says, that his works bear witness of him; and what was that witness? viz. that he was the Messiah. Here again he says, that his works bear witness of him; and what is that witness? viz. 'that the Father sent him.' By which we are taught, that to be sent by the Father, and to be the Messiah, was the same thing in his way of declaring himself. And accordingly we find many hearkened and assented to his testimony, and believed on him, seeing the things that he did.'

55. 2. Another way of declaring the coming of the Messiah, was by phrases and circumlocutions, that did signify or intimate his coming, though not in direct words pointing out the person. The most usual of these were, The kingdom of God, and of heaven: because it was that which was

1 John, iv. 53, and xi. 45; and elsewhere.

2 From the extreme acuteness and subtilty of his mind, Locke, who here seems to be perfectly right in his views, sometimes introduces too much nicety, perhaps, into his interpretations of Scripture, though the method he followed and the pains he took to arrive at truth deserve the admiration of every Christian. In his Notes on the Epistle to the Galatians, i. 4,—öç ἐξέληται ἡμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος αἰῶνος πονηροῦ that he might take us out of this present evil world, or age;' so the Greek words signify. Whereby, he says, it cannot be thought that St. Paul meant that Christians were to be immediately removed into the other world. Therefore veσrç alov must signify something else than present world, in the ordinary im

oftenest spoken of the Messiah, in the Old Testament, in very plain words; and a kingdom was that which the Jews most looked after and wished for. In that known place, Isaiah, ix.: 'The government shall be upon his shoulders; he shall be called the Prince of peace: of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end: upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with justice, from henceforth, even for ever.' Micah, v. 2. 'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thou

port of these words in English. Alv ovτos, 1 Cor. ii. 6, 8, and in other places, plainly signifies the Jewish nation, under the Mosaical constitution; and it suits very well with the apostle's design in this Epistle, that it should do so here. God has in this world but one kingdom and one people. The nation of the Jews were the kingdom and people of God whilst the law stood. And this kingdom of God under the Mosaical constitution was called air ouros, this age,' or, as it is commonly translated, this world,' to which alov vεOTOS, the present world, or age,' here answers. But the kingdom of God, which was to be under the Messiah, wherein the economy and constitution of the Jewish church, and the nation itself, that, in opposition to Christ, adhered to it, was to be laid aside, is in the New Testament called alov μέλwv,— the world, or age, to come;' so that Christ's taking them out of the present world, may, without any violence to the words, be understood to signify his setting them free from the Mosaical constitution. This is suitable to the design of this Epistle, and what St. Paul has declared in many other places. See Col. ii. 14-17, and 20, which agrees with this place, and Rom. vii. 4, 6. The law is said to be contrary to us,' Col. ii. 14, and to work wrath,' Rom. iv. 15, and St. Paul speaks very diminishingly of the ritual parts of it in many places. But yet, if all this may not be thought sufficient to justify the applying of the epithet rovnou, evil,' to it, that scruple will be removed, if we take vέorwç aior,' this present world,' here, for the Jewish constitution and nation toge ther, in which sense it may very well be called evil, though the apostle, out of his wonted tenderness to his nation, forbears to name them openly, and uses a doubtful expression, which might comprehend the heathen world also, though he chiefly pointed at the Jews.-ED.

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sands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be the ruler in Israel.' And Daniel, besides that he calls him Messiah the prince,' in the account of his vision of the Son of man,' says, 'There was given him dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.' So that the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven, were common phrases amongst the Jews, to signify the times of the Messiah. One of the Jews that sat at meat with him, said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.' The Pharisees demanded, When the kingdom of God should come?' and St. John Baptist came, saying, ' Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand: a phrase he would not have used in preaching, had it not been understood.

56. There are other expressions that signified the Messiah, and his coming, which we shall take notice of as they come in our way. 3. By plain and direct words, declaring the doctrine of the Messiah; speaking out that Jesus was he; as we see the apostles did, when they went about preaching the gospel, after our Saviour's resurrection. This was the open, clear way, and that which one would think the Messiah himself, when he came, should have taken; especially if it were of that moment, that upon men's believing him to be the Messiah depended the forgiveness of their sins.