by his Spirit transform men into the image of their God, in righteousness and true hoHness"^. Thus he fulfilled the office which God, by the Prophet Malachi, had assigned to the Fore- runner of our Lord, " Behold, 1 send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ;" and thus shewed himself a fit representative of that person whom the same prophet after- wards speaks of under the name and character of Elias^
To this it is objected, and a strong objection it appears, that John, when interrogated by the Priests and Levites whether he was Elias, distinctly declared that he was not™; from whence it is said, and with great appearance of reason, that, supposing him to have been Elias, as our Lord affirms him to have been, he, by denying it, betrayed his office, and sanctioned the rejec- tion of his Divine Master : but, as we cannot suppose that so good a man would have acted thus, we must believe what he says, and conclude, of course, that Elias is not yet come.
But it must be remembered, that the Jews expected Elijah the Tishbite to come, and inquired whether John were he : consequently, John was right in denying himself to be that identical person : and the time for the fuller and more explicit development of this point was not yet arrived, their minds being not yet sufficiently prepared for it ; as our Lord after- wai'ds said, " I have many things to say unto you, but ye can- not bear them now"." But at this very time did John fully open his office as the Forerunner spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah ; saying, " I am the voice crying in the wilderness : make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaiah °." And, if this declaration of his be compared with the testimonies respecting him by the Prophet Malachi p, he will be found to have given the true answer to the inquiry of the priests, and that which alone, at that time, they were able to receive.
If it be still objected, that because neither Elias zw person came, nor did John ever bear his name, the prophecy has there- fore not been fulfilled ; I answer, that to speak of one person under the name of another whom he represents, is not uncom- mon, either in the Scriptures or in classic authors. Of the Jews, after their return to their own land, God says, " I will set up one Shepherd over them, even my servant David ; and I will be their God, and my servant David a prince among themi : yet was it never supposed by the Jews that David was to come again in 2^^^son to reign over them in that day ; but only, that their Messiah should come under the name of David, by whom he was typically represented. Let this be conceded,
^ Matt. iii. 1 1 . These references in '\ ', ^, should be cited at length. ^ Mai. iii. 1. and iv. 5. "» John i. 19 — 21 « John xvi. 12.
° John i. 22, 23. p Mai. iii. 1. and iv. 5, 6.
1 Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. xxxvii. 24, 25. and Hos. iii. 5.
1378.1 Elijah's advent in john baptist. 467
as it must of necessity be ; and the whole difficulty is solved at once : and we are prepared for that which we are next to contemplate,]
III. The inference to be deduced from it —
We say, then, without fear, that Jesus is the Christ,
the Saviour of the v^orld —
[To the testimony of John our Lord himself appealed "^i but " he had greater witness than that of John, even the works which he wrought^ ;" and to these he appealed, for the satisfaction of the messengers whom John sent to him, to inquire whether he were the Christ*. He acknowledged indeed, that, under existing circumstances, there was some difficulty in receiving John the Baptist as the representative of Elijah : " If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come"." But that difficulty being removed, I will bear the same testi- mony to Christ as this EHas did : " He is the Son of the Living God," even *' Emmanuel, God with us^" " He is that Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world :" nor is there a person in the world whose iniquities, though red like crimson, shall not, when washed in his blood, become white as snow^"