and to whose directions all were commanded to submit. He was the Messiah himself, the very " Lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world," of whom " John himself needed to be baptized," and by whom alone John himself could be saved. Surely then the words of John respecting him were not an unmeaning hyperbole, the offspring of affectation and the footstool of vanity, but they were the words of truth and soberness ; for though John was like the morning star, yet he was altogether eclipsed as soon as ever the Sun of Righteous- ness arose.]
The superiority of Jesus will still further appear while we consider,
II. The baptism he administered —
Jesus never administered the baptism of water to any : but to him was committed the work of baptizing with the Holy Ghost —
[Though the Church had from the beginning received, in some measure, the communications of God's Spirit, yet, *' till Christ was glorified, the Holy Ghost was not given" in a very general or abundant manner : it was reserved for Christ to send him down, in order that, through the Spirit's testimony, his own divine mission might be established beyond a possibility of doubt. Accordingly, a few days after his ascension, he fulfilled his promise, and sent down the Spirit upon his waiting disciples, causing it to rest upon them visibly, in the shape of cloven tongues of fire. And when, on another occasion, he poured out the Spirit upon Cornelius and his company, Peter particularly called to mind this declaration, which John the Baptist had made to the infant Church, and acknowledged it to be a glorious completion of his prophecy''.]
This baptism infinitely surpassed that of John —
[John baptized with water those who were penitent, testifying to them that they should believe on him who was to come after him*^ : but Jesus, by the baptism which he admi- nisters, makes men both penitent and believing. John, in applying water to the body, even if he had immersed his followers ten thousand times, could do no more than cleanse the outward body ; he could not reach the mind ; he could not affect the soul ; he could not in any degree change the character of his disciples. But the Spirit, with which Jesus baptized, acted with the powerful energy of " fire." This was no sooner poured out than it penetrated the inmost recesses of the soul, and, like a furnace, purged away the dross which
<= Acts xi. 16. «' Acts xix. 4.