our Lord, with repeated asseverations, says to Nico- demus, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God^"
These declarations of our Lord to Nicodemus are peculiarly strong ; because the import of them can- not with any appearance of reason be explained away. Some indeed have endeavoured to explain this of baptism ; but I wish that those, who think it can bear that construction, would see what sense they can on that supposition make of the whole context. Let us suppose for a moment that baptism is the new birth, and that baptism was the point which our Lord so strongly insisted on ; Why should our Lord, when explaining and enforcing his first assertion, so care- fully distinguish between water-baptism, and the operations of the Holy Spirit ; " Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?" Here, admitting that he insisted on the necessity of being born of water, he insisted also on being born of the Spirit, in order that he might convince Nico- demus that he spoke, not of an outward and carnal, but of an inward and spiritual, change. Again — How can his subsequent explanations apply to baptism ? On the supposition that he speaks of a spiritual birth, his reasons are clear and forcible ; '' that which is born of the flesh, is flesh :" and therefore unfit for a spirifual kingdom: but "that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit," and exactly suited to that kingdom which he was about to establish. Again — If it were baptism of which he speaks, what connexion has that with the wind, which bloweth where it listeth, and which, though inexplicable in some respects, is inva- riably and infallibly to be seen in its effects ? If it were baptism, it would blow, not where the Spirit listeth, but where the parents and the minister list : and as for its effects, they are for the most part visible to no human being. Moreover, how could our Lord with justice ask Nicodemus, " Art thou a master in
^ John iii. 3 — 5.