very natural in those circumstances, is implied in several parts of the evangelical records. I shall examine a few of these passages. In John iii. 22. we thus read: "After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. (And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salem.) And they came and were baptized. And a dispute arose on the part of John's disciples with the pharisees about purification*." The followers of John maintained, that he was the Messiah, in opposition to the Lord Jesus; and they were filled with jealousy, when they saw the latter performing such miracles, and the people flocking to him, to the neglect of his forerunner. Under the influence of this jealousy, the leading disciples of the Baptist, accompanied with certain pharisees, went and disputed with Jesus or his followers about baptism; insisting, no doubt, that the baptism of John, and not that of Jesus, was the baptism of the Messiah. Their preju

Johannis, qui videbantur esse magni, segregarunt se a populo, et magistrum suum veluti Christum prædicarunt. Hæc autem omnia præparata sunt schismata, ut et fides Christi per hæc impediretur. Recogn. lib. i. 54.

* That is, the disciples of John, accompanied with the pharisees, disputed with the disciples of Jesus respecting baptism.

dice against Christ appears to have been deeply rooted, and the Baptist endeavours to eradicate it in the succeeding verses, having unequivocally borne his testimony to him as superior to himself.

Another allusion to this coalition we meet with in Matt. ix. 10.-" And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the pharisees often fast, but thy disciples fast not?" On the brief and emphatic reply, which Jesus here makes to his enemies, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, the words of Josephus is a beautiful comment, "In a word, no honourable feeling was so entirely lost in those men as that mercy, which is so requisite in seasons of calamity. For the objects which excite the compassion of other men, served only to render the zealots more ferocious." Jesus knew what was in those men who

here opposed him, and foreseeing the barbarities they should commit, applies to them a maxim, which, though most necessary in their situation, was most foreign to their nature. Such instances lead us to conclude, that the language of our Lord had, on every occasion, more than ordinary force and propriety.

Let us next see what the Baptist thought of the sadducees and pharisees, who affected to believe in him. "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O race of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance." John baptized the people who came to him with upright views; but he appears to have dismissed the sadducees and pharisees without that ceremony, having manifested some surprise and indignation at their appearance. He was therefore aware, that they had some sinister end, which they wished to conceal under a shew of repentance. The Baptist here calls them a race of vipers, in reference, no doubt, to the title in which they prided as the race of Abraham. He intimates farther that, unless they repented, they were to be removed from the stem of Abraham, while the Gentiles,

by repentance and reformation, were to be engrafted in their room. But the Gentiles became the children of Abraham, by believing, as Abraham did, in one God, the only creator and governor of the universe. By parity of reason, the incorrigible among the Jews ceased to be the children, by apostatizing from the faith of that patriarch, that is, by relapsing into idolatry, denying, as Jude says of them, the only supreme Lord, and affecting to believe in the serpent, which the Egyptians worshipped as the symbol of wisdom, and had ever opposed to the God of Israel. The phrase race of vipers is fitly ascribed to the zealots, as worshippers of the serpents, while it characterises the malice, and craft by which they were distinguished.

Our Lord, in the fifth chapter of John, discourses with the pharisees and sadducees of Jerusalem. Of this discourse I shall quote one passage to shew, that their sentiments were in perfect unison with those, whom the Baptist holds up as apostates from the faith of Abraham. "Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man only but these things I say, that ye may be saved. He was a burning and a shining light; and ye are willing for a season to rejoice in his light." Here it is explicitly declared, that at this period the pharisees and sadducees, whom Jesus

now addressed, affected to believe in John the Baptist; and this will account for their union with his disciples in opposing the claims of our Lord. He then adds, "But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another come in his own name, him ye will receive. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust."

Here it is insinuated in very clear terms, that some impostor would come in his own name, and that the pharisees and sadducees would follow him, so as to forsake the true God, the universal Father; and that for their apostacy, in this respect, they stood condemned by the authority of Moses. Our Lord apparently alludes to Deut. xiii. 1. where we thus read, "If there arise among you a prophet, and giveth thee a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee; saying, let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet." Here Moses in the name of Jehovah warns the Jews against an impostor, who should attempt to seduce them to the worship of some other unknown god. Now at this time the Samaritan Simon, a disciple of John the Baptist, did actually arise, and preached an unknown