f mien he is old.] This expression seems to indicate that Nicoderaus himself was an old man when this conversation took place. If this be so, it is only fair, in judging his case, to make some allowance for the slowness with which old age receives new opiniors, and. specially in the things of religion. At the same time it supplies an encouraging proof that no man is too old to be converted. One of our Lord's first converts was an old manl
6. — [Boccept....horn of water and of the Spirit] This famous text ha^ unhappily given rise to widely different interpretations. On one thing only respecting it, nearly all commentators are agreed It is the same truth that is laid down in the third verse, only laid down with greater fulness in compassion to Nicodemus' weakness of understanding. But what does it mean ? The ex- pression " born of water " is pecuhar to this place, and occurs nowhere else in the Bible. It cannot be literally interpreted. No one can be hterally " born of water." What then does the phrase signify ? When can it be said of any one, that he is " born of water and of the Spirit ? "
The first and commonest interpretation is to refer the text entirely to baptism, and to draw from it the inseparable connec- tion of baptism and spiritual regeneration. — According to this view of the text, our Lord tells Nicodemus that baptism is abso- lutely necessary to salvation, and is the appointed means of giving new birth to the heart of man. " If you wish to belong to my kingdom, you must be born again, as I have already said ; and if you wish to be born again, the only way to obtain this mighty blessing is to be baptized. Except a man be re- genei'ated or born again by baptism, he cannot enter my king- dom." This is the view of the text which is maintained by the fathers, by the Roman Catholic writers, by the Lutheran commentators, and by many English divines down to the present day. It is a view which is supported by much learning, and by many strange and far-fetched arguments, such as Gqu. i. 2. It is, however, a view which to my own mind is utterly unsatis- factory.
The second, and less common in«terpretation, is to refer the text partly to baptism and partly to that real regeneration of heart, which a man may receive, like the penitent thief, without having been baptized. — According to this view, our Lord tells Nicodemus that a new birth is absolutely necessary to salvation, and that to be baptized, or " born of water," is one of the appointed ways by which regeneration is effected. Those who hold this view deny as stoutly as any that there is- any inseparable con- nection between baptism and regeneration. They hold that multi- tudes are " born of water " who are never born of the Spirit. But they maintain that the word " water " must be intended to point us to baptism, and that by the use of the expression, "born of