remarks of Hooker, which are so frequently thrown in the teeth of those who take the view of "water and the Spirit," which I do, are a curious instance of the coolness witli which a great man can soihetimes draw an illogical conclusion in his own favour, from some bioad general premise. He lays down the general principle '' that when a literal construction of a text will stand, that furthest from the letter is commonly the worst." He then proceeds to take it for granted, that to interpret " born of water " of baptism, is the literal constiuction of the text now before us. Unfortunately this is precisely the point that I for one do not concede ; and his conclusion is consequently, to my mind, worth- less. Moreover when we talk of a "literal" sense, there must evidently be so^ne limit to it. If not, we cannot answer the Eoman Catholic, when he proves transubstantiation from the words, " this is my body."
I beheve that for a true and sound exposition of the text before us, we must look to the Puritans and Dutch divines of the seven- teenth century. It was necessary for men to be a generation further off from Romanism, before they were able to give a dispassionate opinion about such a text as this. The early Protestants did not see the consequences of the language they sometimes used about baptism with sufficient clearness. Other- wise, I beheve they Avould not have written about it as they did. To. any one who asks for a specimen of the 17th century divinity, I would say, that one of the simplest and best state- ments of the true meaning of the text before us, will be found in Poole's Annotations.
In leaving the whole subject, there is one fact which I think deserves very serious consideration. Those Churches of Chris- tendom at the present day, which distinctly maintain that all baptized persons are born of the Spirit, are as a general rule, the most corrupt churches in the world. Those bodies of Christians on the other hand, which deny the inseparable connection of bapti-m and the new birth, are precisely those bodies which are most pure in faith and practice, and do most for the extension of the Gospel in the world. This is a great fact which ought not to be forgotten.
6. — {^That which is born.. .flesh.. .spirit] In this verse, our Lord gives Nicodemus the reason why the change of heart called "new birth," is a thing of such absolute necessity, and why no slight moral change will suffice. Nicodemus had spoken of " entering a second time into his mother's womb." Our Lord tells him, that even if such a thing was possible, it would not make him fit for the kingdom of God. The child of human parents would always be like the purents from which it sprung, if it was born a hundred times over. " That which is born ot the fleah is flesh." All men and women are by nature corrupt.
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sinful, -fleshly, and alienated from God. " They that are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom. viii. 8.) Their children will always be born with a nature like that of their parents. To bring a clean thing out of an unclean, is proverbially impossible A bramble will never bear grapes, however much it may be L'ultivated, and a natural man will never be a godly man without the Spirit. In order to be really spiritual and fit for the kiDg- dom of God, a new power from without must enter into a man's nature. " That which is born of the spirit is spirit."
The sentence is undoubtedly very elliptical, and expressed in abstract terms. It is like St. Paul's words, " The carnal mind is enmity against God." (Rom. viii. 7.) But the general mean- ing is unmistakeable. Human nature is so utterly fallen, corrupt, and carnal, that nothing can come from it by natural generation, but a fallen, corrupt, and carnal offspring. There is no seh-curative power in man. He will always go on repro- ducing himself To become spiritual and fit for communion with God, nothing less is required than the entrance of the Spirit of God into our hearts. In one word, we must have that new birth of the Spirit which our Lord twice described to Nicodemus.
The word '' flesh," I am inclined to think, with Poole and Dyke, is taken in two senses in this verse. In the first case, it means the natural body of man, as in John i. 14. In the second case, it means the corrupt carnal nature of man, as in Gal. v. 17. — The same remark applies to the word Spirit. In the first instance, it means the Holy Spirit, and in the second, the spiritual nature which the Spirit produces. The offspring of all children of Adam is fleshly. The ofifspring of the Spirit is spiritual. Nei- ther the grace, nor rank, nor money, nor learning of parents will prevent a chil»J having a corrupt heart, if it is naturally born of the flesh. Nothing will make any one spiritual but being born again of the spirit.
It must be carefully remembered, in considering this verse, that it cannot be applied to the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He had a true body like our own, He was not *' born of the flesh" as we are. by natural generation, but con- ceived by the miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost.
7. — [Marvel not. .must he horn again.] In reading this verse, the stress ought to be laid on the two last words, " born again." It is evident that the thing which stumbled Nicodemus was the idea of any " new birth" at all being necessary. He felt unable to understand what this "new birth" was. Our Lord forbids him to marvel, and proceeds to explain the new birth by a familiar illustration.
It is a noteworthy and striking fact, that no doctrine has ex-
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cited *ucli surprise in every age of the Church, and has called forth s ) much opposition from the great and learned, as this very doctrine of the new birth. The men of the present day who sneer at conversions and revivals, as fanaticism and enthusiasm, are nowise better than Nicodemus. Like him, they expose their own ignorance of the work of the Holy Grhost.
8. — [The wind hloweth, c&c] The object of this verse appears to be to explain the work of the Holy Ghost in the regeneration of man, by a familiar illustration drawn from the wind. Mysterious as the Spirit's work was, Nicodemus must allow that there was much of mystery about the wind. " The wind bloweth where it listeth." We cannot account for the direction in which it blows, or for the beginning or extent of its influence. But when we hear the sound of the wind, we do not for a moment question that it is blowing. Our Lord tells Nicodemus that it is just the same with the operations of the Spirit. There is doubtless much about them that is mysterious and incomprehensible. But when we see fruit brought forth, in a manifest change of heart and life, we have no right to question the reaUty of the Spirit's operations.
The last clause of the verse is undeniably somewhat diflBcult, — " So is every one that is born of the Spirit." We should rather have expected, " So does the Spirit operate on every one that is born again." And this wa=;, no doubt, our Lord's meaning. Yet the form of speech which our Lord uses is not altogether without parallel in the New Testament. For instance, we read, " The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed." (Matt. xiii. 24.) The likeness in this case is clearly not between the man and the kingdom. The meaning is that the whole story is an illustration of the kingdom of heaven. So also we read that '' the kingdom of heaven is hke unto a merchant- man seeking goodly pearls," and might make a similar remark. (Matt. xiii. 45.)
The G-reek word translated " wind," at the beginning of this verse, might be rendered with equal correctness, " the Spirit." Many think, as Origen, Augustine, Rupertus, Bengel, Schottgen, Ambrose, Jansenius, Wyclifife's Version, Bucer, and Bede, that it ought to be so rendered. They deny that our Lord brought in the idea of " the wind" at all. They object to it being said of the wind that " it listeth," and tay that the expression cannot be applied to any but a person.
This notion seems to me, as it does :o the great majority of commentators, entirely untenable. For one thing, it creates great awkwardness to make a comparison between tlie Spirit and the work of the Spirit, which we must do if this theory is correct. "The Spirit bloweth, — and so is every one born of the