SERMON XV.

ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. JOHN THE

BAPTIST.

ST. MATHEW, xi. 11.

"Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."

WHAT

HAT an encomium is here, upon that renowned person and distinguished saint, whose nativity the Church this day commemorates; an encomium, too, from the mouth of the highest and most perfect discerner of characters, the eternal Son of God. It will not be amiss, my brethren, but very pertinent and commendable, to turn our attention to the life of the man, upon whom our blessed Lord hath bestowed such honourable expression of his respect and approbation. A character which Christ commends can never be studied without advantage.

The course which our thoughts will most naturally take is, to inquire in what the Baptist was so remarkable as to have merited and obtained such discriminating praise.

And, in the first place, he was peculiarly remarkable in his birth and office. There is a striking and beautiful analogy in all the works of God. Great and remote events are typified in those which are immediate and of less magnitude; and his spiritual economy is frequently illustrated in the arrangements of his material world. When the sun approaches to scatter the darkness of night, and cheer, and invigorate creation with his beams, he is preceded by the morning star ushering him in with.

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its fainter dawn. In like manner, when the more glorious "Sun of Righteousness" was about to rise upon our benighted world, the Most High ordained that an harbinger should go before him 'to prepare his way," and announce his coming. It was reserved for a pious pair, who were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," to be assured by an angel sent from God that they should give birth to the person who should execute this extraordinary office. The prophets had predicted his appearance and character, as the herald of Messiah the Prince; and in the spirit and life, and even attire of the good Elijah, this herald had been. typified. At the appointed time, contrary to the expectation and hopes of nature, Zacharias and Elizabeth were blessed with this wonderful child, filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb; so much like Elijah as by many to be taken for him, and so precisely at the period when the Jews were expecting the promised deliverer, that some supposed he was indeed the Christ. Considered as the forerunner of our Lord, there is something in him peculiarly interesting, and entitled to appropriate respect. We admire the exact fulfilment of prophecies, and striking accomplishment of types; and cannot wonder that Gabriel declared to the amazed Zacharias, "Thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.”

Having noticed his peculiar office, and the circumstances of his birth, we proceed to observe that St. John was eminently distinguished by his piety and humility. There is an intimate and nice relation between all the virtues and duties of life. This is very observable in piety and humility. They can hardly subsist apart. The man cannot be pious who is not humble; and seldom is he adorned with humility who is not pious. They generate each other in the heart. In the life of the Baptist there is such a display of these conjoined graces as exhibits him at no ordinary point of moral elevation. When our blessed Lord presented himself a candidate for his baptism, an occasion. which would have elated and flattered many a teacher of rightcousness, his unassuming modesty, and holy reverence for the

Redeemer, form a most lovely picture. "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" Astonished at the singularity of his appearance and doctrines, the Jews mused in their hearts whether he were not the Christ, and sent messengers to ask him the question. Had he been impious, here was opportunity to arrogate to himself divine honours. Had he been ambitious, here was an occasion to have placed himself at the head of his nation. But, equally to be admired for his diffidence of himself and his devotion to his Lord, he replied, "There cometh one after me, mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes. I am unworthy to unloose." But why do I adduce particular instances? His whole life was one continued exhibition of selfdenial and religious devotion. For him the plaudits of fame and the trophies of power had no charms. In him "soft raiment" and delicate life excited no covetous desires. In the plain, coarse garb of the penitent, sequestered from the haunts of pride and pleasure, he held the holy tenor of his way:

"The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well.
Remote from man, with God he passed his days,
Prayer all his business; all his pleasure, praise."

Deep must have been his sense of sin; strong his principles of sobriety; great his love of God, who could retire from all the voluptuousness of life to the wilderness of Judea, and content himself for sustenance with "locusts and wild honey." In his public ministry he evidenced the motives of his austerity. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was the substance of all his discourses.

But I haste to observe, that the Baptist did not live for himself alone. His austerity did not degenerate into a mere concern for his own salvation. In his devotion to God, he did not forget that he owed much to his fellow beings. For he was not more distinguished by the properties which have already been mentioned, than by his zeal for the propagation of truth, and the welfare of his countrymen. What do I see! "Jerusalem, and all

Judea, and all the region round about Jordan," are flocking to him to be "baptized, confessing their sins." The amiable man has been amongst them as their friend, declaring and reproving their vices, and warning them of the approach of Messiah, with rich blessings for those who would receive him, and awful judgments for his enemies. It was a dissolute as well as an important period with the Jewish nation. Now was the fulfilment of the promise to their fathers at hand; the advent of "the consolation of Israel;" the incarnation of the Son of God. But they were absorbed in the expectation of a temporal prince and the desires of worldly felicity, and immersed in all the vices and hypocrisies to which such views of religion and life ever give birth. St. John beheld them with regret. He was bold and anxious in his reproofs. And it was concern for his country, as well as fidelity to the Lord, which induced him to assume an unequalled austerity of life, that he might influence them by his example as well as his instructions, "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance." How great and good does he appear in this view of him! How commendable is every man who thus sorrows for the vices, and is solicitous for the welfare of his fellow beings! And let it be observed in passing, that a true regard for the happiness of our countrymen and the human race is ever connected with a regard for their religious and moral improvement. The schemes are fanciful and fallacious which would separate civil from moral improvement, temporal from religious happiness. Unfortunate Jews! Ye are a solemn monument of the truth of this observation. Happy had it been for you had ye listened to the pious Baptist, as the harbinger of Christ, and received the Messiah whom he pointed out and preached. But they were carried away with schemes of their own aggrandisement; they preferred to be led by their ambitious and jealous rulers. And when the Saviour "came to his own, his own received him not." They suffered, alas! in the destruction of their city and polity, the just judgment of God upon their perverseness; and continue to this day everywhere a distinct, and nowhere an established, people. Hasten, great God, the

promised time when thou wilt gather them with thine arms, and bring them to thy flock, and we all be happy in "one fold, under one Shepherd," Jesus Christ!

But to return: we observe, in the last place, that the Baptist was eminently remarkable for his dignified resolution, and manly constancy in the cause of righteousness. He was not, as our Saviour happily expressed it, in his ironical questions to the multitude concerning John, "a reed shaken with the wind." He was the avowed advocate and determined professor of virtue. Never was a more steady and undaunted adherence to principle exemplified by man. Not the sneers and scoffings of the profane; not the influences of fashion; not the frowns nor the smiles of the great could bend this prodigy of rectitude from the path of duty. He was amongst "a crooked generation." He stood before a corrupt court. But neither flattery nor threats could bring him to a truce with vice. Into the bosom of Herod himself he carried his reproofs. The adulteries and iniquities of this profligate Tetrarch he dared to reprehend, and in the cause of virtue finally shed his blood. Herod, to the black catalogue of his crimes, added this above all, that he cast John into prison, and, in an hour of intemperance and rashness, at the instigation of the lewd woman with whom he lived in the basest intimacy, commanded the holy man to be beheaded. Thus, in an age when sincerity was wonderful, and virtue was singular, did the good Baptist constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake.

When we review his extraordinary birth and office; his unequalled piety and humility; his noble concern for truth, and the happiness of his countrymen; and his dignified resolution and manly constancy, even unto death, in the cause of righteousness, we see a rare example of excellence, and feel the truth of our Lord's declaration, that "among those who are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."

A few observations pertinent to this subject, suggest themselves to close this discourse.

We are not called, I conceive. my Christian friends, to exer