have a a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" But still such as were overwhelmed with great temporal evils might be said to be baptized with a like baptism. So that both the figurative modes of expression may be applied, not only to James whom Herod killed with the sword, but to John also: for though antiquity does not record of him that he died a violent death, yet he was beaten by the command of the Jewish council, was banished into the isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and calls himself a companion with the Asiatic t Luke xii. 50. If we omit & with six mss. this difficult passage may be thus understood. I came to send fire upon earth: and what do I desire, if it be already kindled? 1 desire to be its first victim. I have a baptism, &c. Or rather; "I came to send fire upon earth :" The fire of persecution must be spread in consequence of the new religion which I am come to establish: "6 and what will I if it be already kindled?" nor is it my will that the enmity of the Jews should not already have kindled it against me. But I must experience their fury in a much greater degree. "I have also a baptism to be baptized with" a cruel death to suffer: "and how am I straitened" in spirit, "till it be accomplished!" how earnestly do I wish that I had finished my course! See Bishop Pearce in loc. One of the references in Wesseling's note on Diodorus Siculus, p. 85. is, τῇ συμφορα βεβαπτισμένον I have nothing to add to the references but Pindar Πυθ. Β. 145. ̓Αβάπλισός ειμι, φελλὲς ὡς, Ὑπὲς ἕρκος Γλμας. Immersabilis sum, suberis instar, Super septum maris-salsi. Upon which the scholiast says, rw názo Ταῖς τῶν ἄλλων κατηγορίαις ἀβάπλισός ειμι. Sic et ego aliorum accusationibus mergi non possum. And Horace may have imitated this passage, where he says that Ulysses aspera multa Pertulit, adversis rerum immersabilis undis. • Acts v. 41. Epist. i. ii. 21, 22. Christians in tribulation: and we may easily suppose that he suffered many things of the Jews and Gentiles which history has not transmitted to us. W u On the night before his crucifixion our Lord said to Peter, "Whither I go thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me hereafter." And when he manifested himself to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias, he thus addressed the same apostle : "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but, when thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God:" which required a divine foreknowledge, as such various kinds of death were inflicted by persecutors. Agreeably to this, antiquity informs us that St. Peter was crucified at Rome during the persecution raised by Nero: and therefore, as our Lord's words in another place imply, he did not tarry on earth till the coming of Christ to destroy Jerusalem. Christ foretold the incredulity of the Jews in two parables; where those who were bidden to a magnificent entertainment, or to a marriage feast which a king made for his son, alleged various pretences for their absence, or even contumeliously treated and slew the messengers. He may also be said to predict this event when he introduced Abraham as saying, " John siii. 36. Cred. v. iii. c. xviii. Matt. xxii. 2. w ib. xxi. 18, 19. y John xxi. 23. * See Lardner Suppl. to * Luke xiv. 18. e "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Again he asked: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man çometh shall he find faith in the land?" "The words, says Bishop Berkeley, refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the obstinate blindness of the Jews; who even then, when they felt the hand of God, would not acknowledge it, or believe the Roman army to be the instrument of divine vengeance." Conformably to this, St. Paul describes the Jews as having the spirit of slumber; and, when he beautifully represents the Jewish nation under the image of an olive tree, he observes that its branches were broken off because of unbelief. The rejection of Christ by the gross body of the Jews appears from history and present experience. h Our Lord prophetically referred to the rejection and excision of the Jews in a variety of places. Having mentioned the future admission of the Gentiles under the idea of guests partaking of a banquet, he thus pursued the image: "But the children of the kingdom [the Jews whose inheritance it was by God's promise to their progenitors, instead of being received into the illuminated guest chamber] shall be i Luke xvi. 31. cib. xviii. 8. 4 Επὶ τῆς γῆς ; Not in the earth. • Propagation Sermon. Tracts, 8vo. p. 220. f Rom. xi. 8. ib. 20. h Jesus thus addressed the Jews, John viii. 28; "When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am he." That is, then shall ye have the strongest means of knowing this, by the miracles about the time of my death, by my resurrection, and by the effusion of the Spirit. So, Rom. i. 21. the Gentiles are said to know God, because he discovered himself to them in his works of creation. iMatt. viii. 12. east into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." k He also alluded to the punishment of the Jews, in the parable of the fig tree which had not borne fruit for three years; and which was to be cut down, if it continued barren after due culture. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he took occasion to instruct his disciples in some important circumstances which should attend his coming to punish the Jews. This prophecy was delivered about three months before the m copious one on the same subject with which it coincides, and which will soon be particularly considered. It was followed by the parable of the unjust judge, who yielded to importunity; and which was intended to shew that the disciples "ought "always to pray, and not to faint." "Hear," adds our Lord, "what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry day and night unto him? [shall he not avenge them of those cruelties which the Jews are about to exercise against them?] and will he be long suffering with respect to them?" In the parable of the ten servants, who were to traffic till their lord's return from a far country, God's vengeance on the Jews was thus foreshewn: "But those mine enemies, who would not that I should Luke xiii. 6-9. n Luke xviii. 1. lib. xvii. 20, &c. TM Matt. c. xxiv. and p. p. о V. p. 144. This is spoken prophetically. When the Christians were persecuted by the Jews, our Lord knew that they would be fervent in prayer to God for deliverance from their persecution. P Luke xix. 27. reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before my face." When our Lord was about to enter Jerusalem triumphantly, he thus described its impending calamities: "The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side: and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another." On the way between Bethany and Jerusalem, five days before the last passover, he symbolically foretold the curse of God on the wicked Jews by blasting the barren fig tree. In the parable of the wicked husbandmen, he represented the lord of the vineyard as about to come and destroy those husbandmen, and let out their vineyard to others. And he immediately proceeded to denounce their destruction in other words: "What is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, shall be broken: [opposition to my doctrine shall be vain and shall be attended with " calamity to its authors:] but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder [when I exert my vengeance, it shall be irresistible and exemplary.] u In the parable of the marriage feast which a certain king made for his son, when those who were 9 Luke xix. 43, 4. ib. 17, 13. Eccl. Hist. ii. 308, &c. » See Jortin's List of Persecutors and their Fate, |