even to look behind you ; but " what your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might." The Saviour is ready to receive you : he will cast out none that come unto him : and the ex- press promise of your God is this, " Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin™."]
m Ezek. xviii. 30.
Matt, iii.l 1. lindeed baptize you with water unto repetiiance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, tvhose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you tvith the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
IT is ignorantly imagined, that they who are most enlightened with the knowledge of Christ, and are most zealous in bringing others to an acquaintance with him, must of necessity be puffed up with pride, and be filled with a high conceit of their superiority to others. But none ever surpassed the Apostle Paul either in zeal or knowledge ; yet none ever mani- fested more deep humility, since language could not even afford him words whereby sufficiently to express the low sense he had of himself before God : he calls himself " less than the least of all saints." Another eminent example of humility is exhibited in the con- duct of John the Baptist, who, though faithful in the highest degree as a preacher of righteousness, never sought his own glory, but invariably directed the eyes of his followers to Christ, in comparison of whom he accounted himself unworthy of the smallest regard. His expressions before us lead us to consider,
I. The transcendent dignity of Christ —
Christ, in a civil view, was not at all superior to John, yea, perhaps inferior, inasmuch as the son of a carpenter might be reckoned inferior in rank to the son of a priest : nevertheless he was, in other points of view, infinitely superior :
1. In his person —