A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

A very remarkable out pouring of the Spirit of God attended John's ministry; and the effect of it was, that Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, were awakened, convinced, went out to him, and submitted to him baptism, confessing their sins. John is spoken of as the greatest of all the prophets who came before Christ: Matth. xi▪11. "Among those that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist;" i e. he had the most honourable office He was as the morning-star, which is the harbinger of the approaching day, and forerunner of the rising sun. The other prophets were stars that were to give light in the night; but we have heard how those stars went out on the approach of the gospel-day. But now the coming of Christ being very nigh, the morning star comes before him, the brightest of all the stars, as John the Baptist was the greatest of all the prophets.

When Christ came in this public ministry, the light of that morning-star decreased too: as we see, when the sun rises, it diminishes the light of the morning-star. So John the Baptist says of himself, John iii 30. "He must increase, but I must decrease." And soon after Christ began his public ministry, John the Baptist was put to death; as the morning-star is visible a little while after the sun is risen, yet soon goes out.

2. The next thing to be taken notice of is Christ's entrance on his public ministry, which was by baptism, followed with the temptation in the wilderness. His baptism was as it were his solemn inauguration, by which he entered on his ministry; and was attended with his being anointed with the Holy-Ghost, in a solemn and visible manner, the Holy Ghost descending upon him in a visible shape like a dove, attended with a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,"