Matthew 3

Ver. 2.—The kingdom of heaven often denotes the gospel dispensation; but sometimes the heavenly glory, or the work of grace in the heart

Matthew 3:7-10

Ye hypocritical Pharisees and irreligious Sadducees, who, like your father the devil, are full of malignant enmity to all real goodness, who hath instigated you to apply for my baptism, as a mean of escaping the temporal and eternal judgments to which ye are so exposed? Bring forth therefore good works in heart and life, suitable to the nature, and evidential of the sincerity, of your repentance, or else my baptism will do you no service. Imagine not that your not being profane Gentiles, but descendants of Abraham, will secure you from God’s vengeance: for he will rather raise up a seed of believing and obedient followers of Abraham out of these Gentile soldiers, or even these stones, than save any of you who persist in your sins. God is now giving you the last trial. If ye reject the Messiah and his gospel offers, which shall soon be presented to you, his judgments, which are now waiting, shall quickly destroy your nation, and cast you into temporal and eternal miseries, on account of your wickedness. 11, 12. By my baptism, I am but attempting to prepare you for the infinitely more worthy Messiah, who will pour out upon you his Holy Spirit in a miraculous manner, and whose operations will be enlightening, warming, powerful, and purifying. He, by his infinite knowledge, by his gospel doctrines, and by his gracious and awful providences, will purify his Jewish church, and separate the precious from the vile; admitting every sincere believer into his gospel church and heavenly mansions, and casting out unbelievers, as light and vain, worthless and unprofitable, into everlasting miseries on earth and eternal torments in hell

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. III.—No place on earth can shut us out from the visits of divine grace. And often the sweetest intercourse with God is enjoyed when we are most withdrawn from the world. Ministers should accommodate themselves to the circumstances in which God places them. They who call others to self-denial, mourning for sin, and mortification of it, must shew themselves as examples; and they who have experienced spiritual pleasures, must look upon carnal delights and enjoyments with an holy indifference. Thorough convictions of the horrible nature of sin, and of the vanity of earthly things, are good preparations for readily receiving the gospel. Even ministers and ordinances are but empty things without Christ. But the faithful work of ministers, and the almighty influences of God, are necessary to gain him admission into men’s hearts. And it is the promises and power of the gospel which chiefly induce men to sincere grief for their sins. Yet, alas, multitudes often seem fond of hearing the gospel, while few really believe it: and most men are ready to rest in external professions or privileges, without any experience of the power of religion. Indispensable is the necessity of true repentance, marked by an holy life, under the influence of the Holy Ghost: and happy for ever are they who are once partakers of this grace! But awfully miserable are they who remain hypocritical and unfruitful hearers! Their day of grace soon comes to an end, when they shall be separated from the godly, and cast into endless destruction. God puts great honour upon such as, through a real sense of their own unworthiness, seek to shun it.—But what delight Jesus took to fulfil all righteousness, required from him as our Surety, and to honour all his Father’s institutions! And great was the delight of JEHOVAH and his Spirit to qualify him for, and bear witness to, his work. May my soul, therefore, entertain the most exalted and endearing thoughts of him, as the Son of God and my Saviour, as the Father’s beloved, in whom I am accepted to eternal life. 3