ance 1 This is the question to which all his answers were directed. If it be thought that he should have begun to "preach Christ unto them/' I answer, This was not his office, at least, not in the plain specific way in which the Apostles preached Christ on the day of Pentecost : he was rather "to prepare the zvay of the Lord ;" and therefore he " preached only the baptism of repentance*? Bearing these things in mind, his answer will be found precisely suited to the occasion. They were calculated to impress upon their minds the following truths :
1. Evil habits are an obstacle to the reception of the Gospel —
[Who does not see that the indulgence of their respective sins was calculated to blind their eyes and harden their hearts ? Are persons, at the very time that they are addicted to the grossest immoralities, in a state fit to receive instructions in the sublime doctrines of the Gospel ? Must not every word of it appear "foolishness unto them?" What was the effect produced on the worldly-minded Pharisees, when our Lord spoke of" making to ourselves friends of the unrighteous mam- mon ? " We are told, " the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things; and they derided himd." And does not daily experience shew, that there must be a certain preparation of mind for the due reception of truth? If you cast the best seed that can be procured into land not broken up, but overgrown with briers and thorns, will you expect a harvest ? So, if persons be not sufficiently convinced of the evil of their ways as to be willing to reform them in matters which unenlightened reason would condemn, there can be no hope that they will improve aright the sublimer truths of revelation.
The Baptist's answer then was precisely what you would give to a man who by continued drunkenness had brought on a fever : ' I can recommend you to a physician, whose pre- scriptions will infallibly cure you ; but it is in vain to go to him, if you do not determine to put away your habits of intoxication.']
2. The putting away of besetting sins is an indis- pensable evidence of our sincerity —
[The people professed to be penitent, and asked what they must do to prove it. Now can any one imagine that they could be sincere, if they were not willing to change their lives? What is repentance? It is not a mere sorrow for having
c Luke iii. 3, 4. d Luke xvi. 14.