"eth first, and restoreth all things:" but he added, "I say unto you, that Elias is indeed "come, and they have done unto him what"soever they listed";" evidently adverting to John the Baptist, whom Herod had recently put to death. Speaking elsewhere of John, he also says, "If ye will receive it, this is "Elias which was for to come." The Jews, however, interpreting the prophecy in too strictly literal an interpretation, conceived that Elijah the Tishbite, who had lived in the reign of Ahab, was personally to re-appear on earth. Therefore, when they sent a message to John, inquiring if he were Elias, "he "answered, I am not';" meaning he was not that Elias whom they expected: and to this misapprehension on their part our Lord seems to allude, when he says, "If ye will re"ceive it," (If, that is, ye will understand the prophecy in its true spirit and signification,) ye will find it to be fulfilled in John the Baptist. There is no contradiction therefore between our Lord's testimony and that of John. Both intended to draw the attention of the Jews to the spirit rather than the letter of the prophecy, and to lead them to compare it with the Baptist's character and office; whence they might readily discern its P Mark ix. 12, 13.

9 Matth. xi. 14.

r John i. 21.

fulfilment. The message of the angel to Zacharias before the birth of John had, indeed, already given the only correct interpretation. of the prophecy, that he should "go before “ him” (that is, before Christ) "in the spirit " and power of Elias." This was the proper clue to Malachi's prediction, "Behold, I will "send you Elijah the prophet;"—not the identical person Elijah, but one who, with that spirit and power which so preeminently distinguished Elijah, should go forth to warn the Jews to embrace the faith of that Christ whom their fathers of old had hoped for and expected, lest, by rejecting him as their Saviour, they should be involved in one general sentence of condemnation with an impenitent and unbelieving world.

The resemblance, indeed, between John the Baptist and the prophet Elijah was very remarkable. Both were distinguished by austere habits of life, by extraordinary sanctity and self-denial, by long-continued seclusion from the world. Both, in due season, came forth from the deserts with zeal, and promptitude, and an undaunted spirit, to visit the abodes of men, to reprove their iniquities, to reclaim them from their errors, and to carry even into courts and palaces the

s Luke i. 17.

warning voice of admonition and rebuke. Elijah recalled the people from the worship of Baal to that of the True God. John roused his hearers from a state of moral and religious corruption to practical holiness and virtue, and to faith in that Redeemer who alone was "mighty to save." The Tishbite boldly sought out Ahab, and denounced the judgments of God against him and his house for their grievous abominations. The Baptist, with no less intrepidity, set before Herod the enormity of his offences, and became the victim of the adulteress's bloodthirsty revenge. Both were signalized as preachers of righteousness," turning the hearts of the “disobedient to the wisdom of the just," and converting men from false views of religion to the worship of God "in spirit and in "truth." So closely did the type and the anti-type correspond in the most striking features of character and conduct!

John the Baptist, however, was “more than "a Prophet." He was invested with a still higher commission, singular in its kind, and with powers of a new and extraordinary description.

Whether the Prophets of old did themselves clearly and fully apprehend, in their spiritual signification, many of their own

predictions, may reasonably be questioned. Even the Apostles were "slow to believe," in this acceptation, "all that the Prophets had

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spoken." But the Baptist, even before the commencement of our Lord's ministry, announced him in terms clearly signifying the spiritual nature of the Christian dispensation. His prediction that our Lord should “bap"tize them with the Holy Ghost and with "fire" evidently implied this, and was signally verified in the miracle of the day of Pentecost. When the Spirit visibly descended upon Jesus at his baptism, and a voice from God the Father declared him to be his "beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased," John instantly "bare record that this was the "Son of God." No less distinctly did he declare his preexistence :-" This is He of "whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for He was before "me';"-before him, that is, in his divine and heavenly existence, though after him as to his birth in this earthly state. By him, too, was our Saviour pointed out expressly as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the "sins of the world;"-not a temporal conqueror or potentate, invested with pomp and splendour, but a suffering Redeemer, a de

voted victim, expiating by his death the guilt of all who would accept him as their Deliverer. Yet did John assert, in terms most awfully impressive, the regal and judicial authority of this his heavenly Lord and Master, "whose fan," said he, " is in his hand, and he "will throughly purge his floor, and gather "his wheat into the garner, but will burn up "the chaff with unquenchable fire"."

It could only be by special inspiration from above, that the Baptist was thus gifted to set forth the character, dignity, and office of the Redeemer. From no other source could he have derived so distinct a conception of those fundamental articles of the Christian faith, our Lord's Divinity, the Atonement He made for sin, our Justification through faith in Him, and our Sanctification through the Holy Spirit. He appears, therefore, before us, not only as a Prophet, but as an inspired Interpreter of Prophecy, teaching the Jews how to understand and to apply their own Scriptures, with reference to that Divine Person in whom they were to be accomplished. Such indeed was the perfection of his teaching in this respect, that we find our Blessed Saviour not unfrequently adopting the very expressions of his messenger and

"Matth. iii. 12.