valley should be exalted, every mountain and hill be made low," Isaiah xl. 3, 4. and thus he should "make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke i. 17. And he was to come in the character of "Elijah the prophet," the stern prophet of the Law," before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," Mal. iv. 5. in judgment to terminate the legal dispensation in Church and State by the destruction of Jerusalem. And his office should be of a spiritual nature; to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers," or to repair nature by grace. This promise terminates the legal revelation; and the last word of it leaves the mind of the pious Jew fully impressed with the blessed hope that Elijah should shortly come, as the fore-runner of the promised Saviour; and with this final promise of the Law, the faith of the believing Jew was animated for the four hundred years of suspended revelation which elapsed between Malachi and the Baptist; for "the Law and the Prophets were until John." (Luke xvi. 16.)

When the fulness of the time was come the harbinger was sent forth; and these prophetic announcements distinguished his arrival. Not only Zacharias should "have joy and gladness," but "many shall rejoice at his birth: for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb, and many of the children of Israel shall he

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turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke i. 14-17.

Here are three things to be remarked as to the spiritual character of this intermediate dispensation. First, it was preparatory to the full Gospel day as exhibited by the Saviour, "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Secondly, its object; it was of a decidedly spiritual nature:

many should rejoice at his birth;" not at his rank or wealth or any temporal blessing, but for the spiritual blessings he should bestow, as follows, "He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb;" and his Ministry shall be spiritually successful; for "many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God," and his office is of a decidedly spiritual character as foretold, and here repeated; "To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." Thirdly, his character as a Minister, it is that of an intermediate dispensation; he is the first of the prophets of the Law, as closing the prophetic ministry of the Law, and therefore "among those born of women there hath not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist; "his character therefore shall be that of stern legality; he shall be a Nazarite, and "shall drink neither wine nor strong drink;" but

"he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb;" which was not the distinction of the prophets of the Law; "and he shall go before" the Saviour, not in the sweet spirit of an Apostle of the full Gospel, crying, "Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord," 2 Tim. i. 2. "but in the spirit and power of Elias," "clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; eating locusts and wild honey," Mark i. 6. "preaching in the wilderness of Judæa, and saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. iii. 1, 2. The condition, the person, and the ministry of the Baptist were all peculiar to the intermediate and preparatory dispensation he came to administer; the most accomplished of the Law, but short of the sweet peace and mercy of the Gospel; it was that of repentance, and yet not without faith, but in a Saviour not yet fully come. But here let it be remarked, all is of a strictly spiritual character, and decidedly marks a spiritual dispensation.

So again at his Circumcision, the seal of the promise to him, his own spiritual character and that of his dispensation are distinctly repeated by his father, "filled with the Holy Ghost." "And thou child shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, where

by the day-spring from on high hath visited us," &c. Luke i. 76-78. Here it is foretold of him that he is to preach the Gospel, though faintly and dimly, according to the character of his dispensation. He is "to give knowledge of salvation," or to preach the Gospel unto his people, first by repentance "or remission of sins" to the penitent; and secondly "through the tender mercy of our God" as a Saviour, who as a dayspring from on high hath visited us-the very character of Christ's incipient Gospel in the flesh, during John's administration, which ceased before our Lord's had attained its completion, and during which faith beheld Christ but dimly revealed as the "day-spring" or faint dawn of the morning. Still John's ministry insisted on "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," Acts xx. 21. to whom he referred his baptised converts as "he that cometh after me,-be shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire," Matt. iii. 11. Here clearly all the great features of a spiritual ministration are plainly foretold of him.

Again, that John's was a spiritual dispensation, is evident from St. Mark's description of it, who begins his Gospel with these remarkable words, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." Here John's dispensation is declared to be an integral part of

the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, even "the beginning" of it. The procession of the approach of royalty is headed by the harbingers and heralds who precede to prepare and make ready the way: they are the beginning and head of the procession. And our Lord Christ thus expressly connects the ministry of John with his Gospel; "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force," Matt. xi. 12. "The kingdom of heaven" or the Gospel dispensation, or as Bishop Hall interprets it, "the Evangelical Church "-in it "there hath been such confluence of holy clients as if they would forcibly thrust themselves into it," and that "ever since the days of John's first preaching until now." Such were the spiritual effects of John's ministry, our Lord himself being witness.

Much more might be adduced in proof of this, which will appear incidentally hereafter; I will close this question with John's own testimony to the same. The whole sermon as given by St. Luke iii. 3-18. is the evident ministration of a spiritual office: that office was, "preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Repentance was the character of the ministry of the last prophet of the Law, but it was not without faith as that of the first preacher of the Gospel; therefore while men were looking for the Gospel, "and mused in their hearts of John whether he were the Christ or not," he refers them to Christ yet to