of Christ in this way: for our Lord declared to him in the most solemn manner, that, " unless he should be [thus] born again, he could not enter into the kins^dom of God."
The same is true in relation to the kingdom of glory. Whilst we are in this world, the tares and the wheat, which grow together, may so resemble each other, that they cannot be separated by human sagacity. The Jewish tares (as I myself know by ocular inspec- tion) cannot, even when full grown, be immediately distinguished from wheat by a common observer": the difference, however, is soon found by rubbing the ears, which in the one are nearly empty, and in the other are full of grain. The same may be noticed also in the religious world. Not only common ob- servers, but even those who have the deepest insight into characters, and the best discernment of spirits, may be deceived ; but God can never be deceived :
° The learned are not agreed what the i^i^dyia were. Parkhurst's account of them, in his Lexicon, is, that they were " a kind of plant, in appearance not unlike corn or wheat, having at first the same kind of stalk, and the same viridity ; but bringing forth no fruit, at least none good." Macknight is precisely of the same opinion. Linnaeus, speaking of that very species which the author here refers to, desig- nates them as the zizania. Later botanists deny that that plant grew in Judaea ; and represent it as of American growth. Whether Lin- naeus was right, is no part of the author's intention to discuss. He merely mentions the fact, that he has seen (in a green-house at Bristol), and had in his own possession an ear of it for some months, till incre- dulous persons rubbed it to pieces, that plant, which Linnaeus iden- tifies with the zizania of Judaea ; which in our Translation of the Bible, is called tares ; and which, though to all appearance useless and unproductive, may easily be mistaken for wheat in full ear. In this view, whatever it be called, it illustrates his subject : and, if it he the zizanion, it reflects a beautiful light also upon the parable of the tares. Matt. xiii. Some indeed think, that because the servants dis- tinguished, the zizania from the wheat, there was no resemblance between them. But that argument is by no means conclusive : for the servants who were constantly habituated to the sight of tares and wheat, might easily discern that they were mixed in the field, whilst yet the difference might not be so great, but that a number of persons employed to pull them all up, might make innumerable mistakes, and root up much of the corn with them. The parable indeed jnay be explained without supposing any resemblance between the two ; but such an interpretation destroys, in the author's apprehension, much of the force, and beauty, and importance of the parable.