ABSTRACT
This chapter contains an account of the preaching of St. John the baptist; who, being called of God in the wilderness, and duly commissioned for his high office, ‘came into all the country about Jordan, preaching to the people the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins.’ There are two sorts of violence which a soldier may be guilty of. One is against those who are lawfully vested with command over him. This is commonly stiled Mutiny, and is a crime of the most atrocious nature; seldom to be expiated but by the Death of the offender. And as God is a God of order, it must be peculiarly odious to him. Another sort of Violence, which a soldier may be guilty of, is, against his Fellow-subjects. This is that violence more immediately meant in the text; the original word signifying, the shaking or terrifying a man, so as to force money from him, thro’ fear.
