I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Ver. 11. I indeed baptize you with water to repentance] There is a twofold baptism, Hebrews 6:2, the doctrine of baptisms (βαπρισμων), viz. Fluminis et flaminis, external and internal, the putting away of the pollution of the flesh, and the answer of a good conscience (purged from dead works) to God-ward. When these two meet, when men are baptized with water to repentance, then baptism saveth (σωζει), 1 Peter 3:21; that is, it effectually assureth salvation, whensoever by the Spirit and faith the baptized comes to be united to Christ, and to feel the love of God shed abroad in his soul, whereby is wrought in him a spirit of repentance, a grief for sin, as it is an offence against God. And hereupon St Peter saith, "Baptism saveth," in the present tense, implying that it is of permanent and perpetual use; effectual to save and seal up the promises, whensoever we repent. From which happy time, baptism, once received, remains a fountain always open for sin and for uncleanness, to those that mourn over him that bled over them; a laver of regeneration, a washing of the Spirit, who poureth clean water upon them, ridding and rinsing them from all their sins, past, present, and future, Zechariah 12:10; Zechariah 13:1; Ezekiel 36:25. Provided that they stand to the covenant and order of baptism, in a continual renovation of faith and repentance, as occasion shall be offered. This doctrine of baptisms (now cleared by divines) various of the ancient doctors understood not, which disheartened Piscator from spending much time upon them. a
He that cometh after me] Whose harbinger and herald I am, whose prodromus and paranymph, friend and forerunner, I am, as the morning star foreruns the sun, with whose light it shineth.
Is mightier than I] And will easily outshine me: "he must increase, but I must decrease;" and this is the complement of my joy, John 3:29,30. To rejoice in the good parts of others, though it eclipseth thy light, and that from the heart, this is indeed to be able to do more than others; this is to excel others in any excellence whatsoever, if this be wanting.
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear] Christ thought John worthy to lay his hand on his holy head in baptism, who thinks not himself worthy to lay his hand under Christ's feet. The more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation, the less he thinks himself. "Who am I?" said Moses, when he was to be sent to Egypt; whereas none in all the world was comparably fit for that embassy. Not only in innumerable other things am I utterly unskilful, saith St Augustine, but even in the Holy Scriptures themselves (my proper profession), the greatest part of my knowledge is the least part of mine ignorance. b I, in my little cell, saith Jerome, with the rest of the monks my fellow sinners, dare not determine of great matters. c This is all I know, that I know nothing, said Socrates; and Anaxarchus went further, and said, that he knew not that neither, that it was nothing that he knew. d This is the utmost of my wisdom, said David Chytraeus, that I see myself to be without all wisdom. And if I would at any time delight myself in a fool, saith Seneca, I need not seek far: I have myself to turn to. e Thus the heaviest ears of grain stoop most towards the ground; boughs, the more laden they are, the more low they hang; and the more direct the sun is over us, the less is our shadow. So the more true worth is in any man, the less self-conceitedness; and the lower a man is in his own eyes, the higher he is in God's. Surely John Baptist lost nothing by his humility and modesty here, for our Saviour extols him to the multitude Matthew 11:7,11; and there are those who doubt not to affirm (where they have it I know not) that for his humility on earth he is dignified with that place in heaven from whence Lucifer fell. Sure it is, that "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." If men reckon us as we set ourselves (Tanti eris aliis, quanti tibi fueris), God values us according to our abasements. The Church was black in her own eyes, fair in Christ's,Song of Solomon 1:5,15 .
With the Holy Ghost, and with fire] That is, with that fiery Holy Ghost, εν δια δυοιν, that spirit of judgment and of burning, wherewith the "filth of the daughters of Zion is washed away,"Isaiah 4:4; that they may escape that unquenchable fire mentioned in the verse next following. This fire of the spirit must be fetched from heaven, Lumen de lumine, light from the light from the Father of lights, who giveth his Spirit to those who ask it; Hinc baptismus dicitur φωτισμος. It must be a coat from his altar, which when you have once gotten, your heart must be the hearth to uphold it; your hands, the tongs to build it; God's ordinances, the fuel to feed it; the priest's lips, the bellows to blow it up into a flame: so shall we find it (according to the nature of fire): 1. To enlighten us, as the least spark of fire lightens itself at least, and may be seen in the greatest darkness. 2. To enliven and revive us; for "whatsoever is of the Spirit is spirit," John 3:6, that is, nimble and active, full of life and motion. A bladder is a dull lumpish thing, so is a bullet; but put wind into the one, and fire to the other in a gun, and they will flee far. Fire is the most active of all other elements, as having much form, little matter; and therefore the Latins call a dull dronish man a fireless man, which God cannot abide. f "What thou doest, do quickly," said our Saviour to Judas; so odious to him is dullness in any business. Baruch, full of the spirit, repaired the wall of Jerusalem earnestly, Nehemiah 3:20. Se accendit, he burst out into heat, and so finished his part in shorter time. "I press toward the mark," saith Paul, διωκω, I persecute it, Philippians 3:14. Never was he so mad in persecuting the saints, Acts 26:11, as after his conversion he was judged to be the other way,2 Corinthians 5:13; as Lucan says of Caesar:-
" In omnia praeceps,
Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum. "
In all things first, never to trust the action while the matter remains to be completed. 3. To assimilate: as fire turns fuel into the same property with itself; so doth the Spirit inform the mind, conform the will, reform the life, transform the whole man more and more into the likeness of the heavenly Pattern; it spiritualizeth and transubstantializeth us, as it were, into the same image from glory to glory, 2Co 3:18 as the sun (that fire of the world) by often beating with its beams upon the pearl makes it radiant and orient, bright and beautiful like itself. 4. To elevate and carry the heart heavenward, as fire naturally aspireth, Job 5:7; and the spark fleeth upwards, to kindle our sacrifices, and make us heavenly minded; to break out at length, though for a while it lie under the weight of sin, that doth so easily beset us, Hebrews 12:1; as fire may lie puffing and blowing under green wood, as almost smothered. g 5. To purify us (as fire doth metals) from "our dross, and to take away all our tin," Isa 1:25; 1 Corinthians 9:11. For he is "like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap," Malachi 3:2, whereby we are purified by "obeying the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren,"1 Peter 1:22. 1 Peter 1:6. And that is the last property of the Holy Ghost and of fire (that I now insist upon), Congregat homogenea, segregat heterogenea: it unites them to saints, and separates them from sinners, for "what communion hath light with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14. It maketh division from those of a man's house, if not of his heart; and yet causeth union with Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, if truly Christian, Colossians 3:2. Oh, get this fire from heaven: so shall you glorify God, Mat 5:16 and be able to dwell with devouring fire (which hypocrites cannot do, Isa 33:14), get warmth of life and comfort to yourselves, give light and heat to others, walk surely, as Israel did by the conduct of the pillar of fire, and safely, as walled with a defence of fire, Zechariah 2:5. And if any man shall hurt such, "fire shall proceed out of their mouths to devour them,"Revelation 11:5. So that a man had better anger all the witches in the world than one of those that are "baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire," &c., especially if they be much mortified Christians, such as in whom his fiery spirit hath done with the body of sin, as the king of Moab did with the king of Edom, Amo 2:1 burnt his bones into lime.
a A patrum lectione, postquam nonnullos evolvisset D. Piscator, sibi temperavit: aususque fuit dicere, Vix ullum patrum usum et efficaciam baptismi recte intellexisse.
b Non solum in aliis innumerabilibus rebus multa me latent, &c. Epist. 119.
c Ego in parvo tuguriolo, cum monachis, i.e. cum compeccatoribus meis, de magnis statuere non audeo. Epist. ad August. cxii. 5.
d Anaxarchus praedicabat se ne id quidem nescire, quod nihil sciret. Tusc. 3.
e Si quando fatuo delectari volo non longe mihi quaerendum est, me video. Seneca. Quod si ex parte aliquid didicerim, tamen in comparatione latitudinis intellectus, profecto nihil me intellexisse intelligo. Baldus.
f Segnis quasi seignis, id est, frigidus, ignavus. Tardis mentibus virtus non facile committitus. Cic.
g The least spark of fire will endeavour to rise above the air: so the Spirit.