1. Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip being tetrarch of Iturea, and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysnias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2. Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the Word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4. As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 5. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; 6. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. THE INTERNAL SENSE. REVELATION is made concerning the state of the church, as being vastated as to truth, because separated from all good, through adulteration of the Word. (Verses 1, 2, 3.) Which Word teaches, that men ought to shun evils as sins against GOD, and believe in the LORD's Divine Human principle. (Verses 3, 4.) In which case the humble shall be replenished with all good, and the proud, or lofty, shall be brought into desolation; the evil of ignorance also shall be turned into good, and the falses of ignorance into truths, and the 7. Then he said to the multitudes that came forth to be baptized by him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say in your selves, We have Abraham for our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. 10. And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then shall we do? 11. And He answering, saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12. But the publicans also came to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? 13. And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14. And the soldiers also asked him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no one, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages. 15. But as the people were in expectation, and all mused in their hearts about John, whether he were the Christ or not, 16. John answered saying, unto all, I indeed baptize you with water, but there cometh one mightier than I, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather His wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. 18. And exhorting in many other things, he preached the gospel to the people. 19. But Herod the tetrarch being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done. 20. Added yet this to all, that he shut up John in prison. 21. Now it came to pass when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus, having been baptized, was praying, that heaven was opened, 22. And the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon Him, and a voice was uttered from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. 23. And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,-of Eli, For that by the baptism of John the church was only inaugurated into the knowledges of truth from the Word, and thus prepared to receive the LORD; whereas the LORD Himself rege nerates men by by Divine Truth and Divine Good proceeding from Himself, from whom alone comes radical purification of the human will, through conjunction of goods and truths with heaven, and the removal of all evils and falses into hell. (Verses 15 to 19.) Yet blessed and holy as this doctrine is, it is altogether rejected by those who are in evil, because it bears witness against them. (Verses 19, 20.) That the LORD, as to His Human essence, submits to be initiated into the external truths of the Word, on which occasion interior truths and goods were manifested, even to the Divine Truth itself, and also to the Divine Good. (Verses 21, 22.) Thus He attained a full state of remains, by which He united the Human essence to the Divine, and made it Divine, al 24. Of Matthat, of Levi,of Melchi-of Janna,- of Joseph, 25. Of Mattathias,—of Amos, of Naum,-of Esli,of Nagge, 26. Of Mahath,-of Mattathias, of Samei,-of Joseph, of Juda, 27. Of Joanna,—of Rhesa, -of Zorobabel,-of Salathiel, -of Neri, 28. Of Melchi,—of Addi, -of Cosam,-of Elmodam, -of Er, 29. Of Josa,-of Eleazer, -of Jorim,-of Matthat,— of Levi, 30. Of Simeon,—of Juda, -of Joseph,-of Jonan,-of Eliakim, 31. Of Melea,--of Menan, -of Mattatha,-of Nathan, -of David, 32. Of Jesse, of Obed,of Booz,-of Salmon,-of Na asson, though it was supposed to be merely human. (Verse 23 to the end.) EXPOSITION. CHAPTER III. VERSE 2. The Word of God came to John.-All revelation is either from discourse with the angels through whom the Lord speaks, or from perception. Genuine perception exists through heaven from the Lord, and affects the intellectual principle spiritually, and leads it perceptibly to think as the thing really is, with an internal assent. A. C. 5121. In the wilderness.-See Exposition, verse 4, and chap. i. 80; iv. 1-13. Verse 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. -He who would be saved must confess his sins, and do the work of repentance. To confess sins is to know evils, to perceive them in one's own heart, to charge one's self with their guilt, and to condemn one's self on account of them. When this is done in the presence of God, it constitutes the confession of sins. To perform the work of repentance, is to abstain from sins after they have been confessed, and supplication has been made for their remission, from humility of heart; and to live in newness of life, according to the precepts of charity and faith. The man who makes only a general acknowledgment that he is a sinner, charging himself as guilty of all evils, and yet does not explore himself, that is, does not really see his own sins, may, indeed, make confession, but not the confession of repentance; for such a person, because he does not know his own evils, lives in the practice of them afterwards, just as he had done before. He who lives in the practice of charity and faith, performs the work of repentance daily; he reflects on the evils that adhere to him, acknowledges them, guards against them, and supplicates the Lord for aid to resist them. For man, of himself, continually lapses into evil, but is continually raised by the Lord, and led to good. Such is the case with those who are in good; but they who are in evil lapse continually, and are also continually raised by the Lord; but they are only withheld from falling into the most dreadful evils, to which, of themselves, they tend with all their might. |