water, and of the Spirit," is evidently explanatory of" born again." But when our Saviour says, 66 Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God;" his words apparently express one qualification for seeing" the kingdom of God," without intimating any disjunction of the constituent parts of this qualification. Observing, that this is not sufficiently explicit, he describes the same qualification, by its constituent parts, "born of water, and of the Spirit ;" but still without the slighest intimation of their disjunction. And what grounds are there in this case to presume, that the two things thus joined together in our Saviour's declaration, are to be separated in fact, or that one of them is not ordinarily essential to being "born again?" When, therefore, our Lord informs Nicodemus that " except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," he cannot certainly, according to the obvious interpretation of his words, be understood, as describing two essentials to a man's seeing the kingdom of God, which do not, ordinarily, take place at the same time, and of which he may receive one, without "seeing"

66

tism 'rightly received,' whereby the person baptized exchanges his natural state in Adam for a spiritual state in Christ." Refutation of Calvinism, p. 95.

the kingdom of God; and at some indefinite period may perhaps obtain the other. According to the ordinary interpretation of the words "except a man be born again," should indicate something of which the WHOLE took place as the preliminary step to a man's entering Christ's kingdom. But when Nicodemus' prejudiced mind misconceives our Saviour's meaning, and understands, by being "born again," natural birth, then Jesus explains himself more distinctly, by saying,

except a man be born of water, and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Upon the very face then of the text it may not unfairly be presumed, that our Saviour speaks of two concurrent and connected circumstances, when he mentions," being born again," or (what he considers as synonimous) being " born of water and the Spirit," as the initiatory rite of his church.

But how greatly is this inference strengthened, if we at the same time bear in mind, that our Lord was addressing a Jew, a Pharisee too, and that this very phrase, "born again," was altogether a Jewish and Rabbinical phrase, the very phrase, which they themselves used, to denote the condition of a proselyte, when completely admitted by water

baptism, to the privileges of the Jewish covenant". The Jews considered that as children of Abraham, they required no regeneration, that they had an hereditary and indefeasible* title to the favour of Heaven.

But the Gentile they held to be in a state of pollution, and they directed, that he should be baptized with water upon his admission to their covenant, in token of his being thus cleansed from the guilt of his former impurity, and received into the number of the children of Abraham. This change they termed regeneration, or being "born again." Till he was baptized they did not consider him régenerate; but they taught that after baptism not only he was regenerate, but all his children born after this baptism were on the same

2

Wall, Infant Bapt., vol. i. p. 24, vol. iii. p. 276, &c. and p. 288. Ed. 4. 8vo. Bethel on Regeneration, cap. iii.

• There appears some little affinity between this opinion of the Jews, which our Saviour was so desirous to explode, and some of the present tenets of election, and indefectible grace. "Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.”

It is a remarkable circumstance that they appear to have had no direct scriptural authority for this practice, or for the application of the terms "born again," in their sense to the Gentile proselyte; and our Saviour seems to have selected this rite, and these terms, to rebuke their arrogant pretensions, and to shew them the absolute necessity of seeking salvation otherwise than by the law, or by trusting in their lineal descent from Abraham, or, in other words, to their being the chosen, or elect people.

footing as Jews, needed no other regeneration, and were heirs of the promises made to the Jews. Here the privilege of baptism, or the spiritual grace of it, was understood to invariably accompany the outward sign, and by being born again the Jew understood the two simultaneous events, being baptized with water, and being born, or admitted to the privileges of Abraham's children. Not only the Gentile was not baptized again, but even his very children born after this were holy, and needed, in the estimation of the Jews, no regeneration.

Now is it to be supposed, that our Saviour, in describing to a Jew the means of admission into the Christian covenant, should single out "born again," the very terms which the Jews used to denote both the outward sign and the inward grace, of that rite, by which a Gentile was admitted to the Jewish covenant; that when called upon to explain the general phrase, “born again," he should do so by using terms analogous to those respectively descriptive of that sign and that grace; that he should use these terms apparently in the very same connexion as that in which the Jews were accustomed to use them, and yet

The extent of the analogy between baptism and circumcision appears to me not to have been marked with sufficient

should mean to convey to the mind of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, an idea, that they were not to be connected; that the one in effect meant nothing, conveyed nothing; and that the baptized proselyte to Christianity, was not, to any beneficial purpose, a member of the Church; was no participator in its privileges; and must wait till, by a special and irrespective act of Omnipotence, he was to be admitted: and then, not from any promise annexed to baptism, but from a decree, by which he was predestined to be one of the elect.

May we not with greater reason infer, that he used these terms in a sense analogous to that in which the Jews had been heretofore accustomed to use them; that in the use of them he had a special view to striking at once at the root of that great Jewish prejudice, to removing that stumbling-stone, that rock of offence, which so greatly obstructed the progress of the Gospel in the minds of Nicodemus' countrymen. May we not infer that he thus, at once, plainly declared to Ni

precision by writers upon this subject. Christian baptism, and the phrases connected with it, are, strictly speaking, principally analogous to the baptism of a proselyte and its phrases. On the subject of the phrase, circumcision of heart, the reader may see some remarks in the Appendix, at the end of this volume.

4 Vide Luke iii. 8.