in order to the completion of that righteousness which he had undertaken to fulfil.]
2. Because it became him to give his pubhc attes- tation to the divine mission of John —
[John had been sent into the world as his forerunner, to announce his advent, and to call men's attention to him as the true Messiah''. Moreover, John had been informed, that the person who was to sustain that high office should be made known to him by a visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon him'': and this descent was to be at the time of our Saviour's baptism. Now, if Jesus had not submitted to the ordinance of baptism, the ends of John's mission would have been de- feated. For Jesus was not personally known to John : and it was only by this miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon him that he was to be distinguished : and, consequently, the plan which Jehovah had adopted for the manifestation of his Son would, so far as the Baptist's testimony was concerned, have been altogether frustrated. In order, therefore, that the mission of John might produce the effects proposed, Jesus overruled the objections of John, and received at his hands the ordinance which he was commissioned to administer.]
3. Because it was the appointed means of his own solemn consecration to God —
[There were two ways in which the Lord Jesus was to be consecrated to his office : the one was by an effusion of the Holy Ghost upon him (as the typical high priests were by a holy unction); and the other was by an audible voice from heaven, bearing testimony to him as the person sent of God to be the Saviour of the world. Now these two attestations from above were of vast importance, not only for the satisfac- tion of John, but also for the satisfaction of the whole world. Besides, this effusion of " the Spirit, which was given to him without measure*^," was given in order to qualify him, as it were, for the discharge of his high office. It had been said by the prophet, that God would " anoint him" to his office **: and that there " should rest upon him a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of might, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; and that God would make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." Now though, as God, he possessed " all the fulness of the Godhead bodily V' yet, as man, and as Mediator, he needed to be thus qualified by the gifts of the Holy Spirit : and therefore on this account, as well as for the reasons before mentioned, it was necessary he should comply with the ordinance that had
" John i. 31. <= John i. 29 — 33. '^ John iii. 34.
" Isai. Ixi. 1. <■ Isai. xi. 2, 3.