And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Ver. 6. And were baptized of him in Jordan] Baptizing of proselytes was in use among the Jews before the days of John Baptist. From this custom (saith Broughton, in Dan 9:1-27), though without commandment and of small authority, Christ authorizeth a seal of entering into his rest, using the Jews' weakness as an allurement thither. As from bread and wine, used with the paschal lamb, being without all commandment of Moses, but resting upon the common reason given by the Creator, he authorized a seal of his flesh and blood.
In Jordan] At Bethabara, John 1:28, that is, at that very place where the people of Israel passed over Jordan and possessed the land. Baptism then was there first administered, where it had been of old foreshadowed. Here also we see that the acts of Joshua and Jesus took their happy beginning at one and the same place. And like as the people, after they had passed over Jordan, were circumcised before they received the land by lot of inheritance: so after we have been baptized, and thereby enrolled among the citizens of the New Jerusalem, the remnants of sin and superfluity of naughtiness must be daily pared off by the practice of mortification, ere we can come to the kingdom of heaven, James 1:21; η περισσεια της κακιας. In allusion to the garbage and excrements of the sacrificed beast.
Confessing their sins] In token of their true repentance. For as only the man that is wakened out of his dream can tell his dreams; so only he that is wakened out of his sins can clearly confess them. a And this confession of sin, joined with confusion of sin (without the which, confession is but wind, and the drops of contrition, water), is that which in baptism we reciprocate. "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the confident answer of a good conscience toward God," 1 Peter 3:21; b a clearing, cheering conscience, a heart washed from wickedness in this laver of regeneration, the baptism of repentance, the washing of the new birth, the being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, this sayeth, saith St Peter. Not as the efficient cause of salvation, for that is Christ alone: nor yet as a necessary instrument, for that is faith alone: but only as a badge of the saved, and a pledge of their salvation; as, on the other side, God will not own a viperous brood, though baptized, that bring not forth fruits meet for repentance. To such, baptism is not the mark of God's child, but the brand of a fool that maketh a vow and then breaketh it, Ecclesiastes 5:4. For the font is Beersheba, the well of an oath; and there we swear (as David did) "to keep God's righteous judgments," Psalms 119:106; Isaiah 10:1,19. Now, if Zedekiah and Shimei paid so dearly for their perjury, for their fast and loose with men, how will God revenge the quarrel of his covenant? The Spanish converts in Mexico remember not anything of the promise and profession they made in baptism, save only their name, which many times also they forget. In the kingdom of Congo in Africa, the Portuguese, at their first arrival, finding the people to be heathens, without God, did induce them to a profession of Christ, and to be baptized in great abundance, allowing of the principles of religion; till such time as the priests pressed them to lead their lives according to their profession; which the most part of them in no case enduring, returned again to their Gentilism. Such renegades we have among us not a few, that give themselves up to Christ, Quoad Sacramenti perceptionem, by external profession (Augustine); but when it comes once ad vitae sanctificationem, to holiness of life, there they leave him in the open field, forsaking their colours, renouncing their baptism, and running away to the enemy. Now for such there is but one law, and it is martial law,Hebrews 10:39 : If any withdraw (υποστειληται) or steal from his captain (as the military term there used importeth) he doth it to perdition, -he is even a son of perdition, as Judas; who was circumcised indeed, as well as Peter, but better he had not. As it had been better for him never to have been born,Mark 14:21, so, being born, never to have been circumcised, and thereby bound to the law. Unregenerate Israel is as Ethiopia, Amos 9:7. And it had been happy that baptismal water had never been spilt on that face that is afterwards hatched with impudent impiety, Jeremiah 3:3,5 .
a εξομολογεισθαι. Est aperta et clara voce confiteri.
b επερωτημα .