John's address to those who came to be baptized
Matt. iii. 7—10. But tvhen he saw mamj of the Pharisees and Mdueees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O qcnera- tion of vipers! who hath warned you to flee from the iv rath
1282.] John's address to his followers. 17
to come ? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father : for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Ajid noiv also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees : therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn doivn, and cast into the fire.
WHEN a profession of religion is become fashion- able, as it were, and common, it is necessary for ministers to be doubly careful that they do not sanc- tion, much less promote, the delusions of hypocrites or impostors. At such seasons, peculiar faithfulness and discrimination will be wanted, that the upright may not be discountenanced, nor the vain pretenders to piety be encouraged.
The Baptist was signally successful in his mini- strations, insomuch that Jerusalem, and all Judtea, and all the region round about Jordan, went to be baptized of him. Amongst this great multitude came many Pharisees and Sadducees, desiring to be num bered amongst his disciples. At this he was utterly astonished ; because the Pharisees were so conceited of their own goodness as to think that they needed no better religion ; and the Sadducees, the free-thinkers of the day, despised religion altogether. He would not immediately reject them, but, in a most faithful and energetic address, declared what they must be, if they would obtain happiness in the future world. He called them *' a generation of vipers," because of the poisonous and infectious nature of their principles, and the manifest relation which, both in sentiment and conduct, they bare to the old serpent the devil''. Such an address became him as a prophet ''; but it would not be suited to us who bear an inferior com- mission. Nevertheless the same fidelity should be found in all : and what he spake to them, we must declare to you ; namely, that,
I. True religion must be judged of by its fruits —
^ John viii. 44.
'' Such were delivered by other prophets, Isai. i. 10 ; and by Christ himself, Matt, xxiii. 33.