that persons could be admitted as dead members into CHRIST, and then afterwards, for the first time, quickened. Our life in CHRIST is, throughout, represented as commencing, when we are by Baptism made members of CHRIST and children of GOD. That life may through our negligence afterwards decay, or be choked, or smothered, or well-nigh extinguished, and by God's mercy again be renewed and refreshed; but a commencement of life in CHRIST after Baptism, a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness, at any other period than at that one first introduction into GOD'S covenant, is as little consonant with the general representations of Holy Scripture, as a commencement of physical life long after our natural birth is with the order of His Providence. Those miracles of God's mercy, whereby He from time to time awakens souls from their lethargy, to see the reality of things unseen, and the extent of their own wanderings from the right way, no more indicate that they had had no life imparted to them before, than a man awaking from an unnatural slumber would that he had been physically dead. These analogies go but a little way; but the very terms "quickened," "awakened," "roused," and the like, wherewith men naturally designate the powerful interposition of GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT upon the hearts of men hitherto careless, convey the notion that the life was there before, although sunk in torpor; the gift there, although not stirred up; the powers implanted, although suffered to lie idle.

The evidence, however, arising from a general consideration of God's declarations in Holy Scripture, obtains fresh strength from the examination of the passages themselves: only we must not look upon them as a dead letter', susceptible of various meanings, and which may be made to bear the one or the other indifferently, but as the living Word of God; particularly we

1 "Now then," says even Zuingli, vindicating Matt. xxviii. 19. from the common Anabaptist cavil, see whether we also cannot weigh the sense and "order of words, if indeed this strife about words (Aoyoμaxía) ought to have any "avail, when they are the words of Christ. For although I am by no means "addicted to the bare letter of words, yet sometimes it needeth to weigh them "according to the letter, yet in a due and right way, lest perchance the letter "should kill.”—De Baptismo, Opp. t. 2. f. 65.

should regard, with especial reverence, any words which fell from our SAVIOUR's lips, and see that we consider, not what they may mean, but what is their obvious untortured meaning. We should not argue, therefore, as some have done, that it is "im"probable that CHRIST, discoursing with a carnal Jew, should lay "so much weight upon the outward sign;" (for this teaching was not for Nicodemus only, but for His Church: and of all our SAVIOUR'S teaching we can know this only, that it would be far different and far deeper than what we should have expected, and that it would baffle all our rules and measures;) nor, again, would we say with Zuingli', Calvin, Grotius, and the Socinians', that the "water" may be a mere metaphor, a mere emblem of the SPIRIT; and so, that being "born again of water and the SPIRIT," means nothing more than "being born of the SPIRIT" without water3. For Hooker well says, "I hold it for a most infallible

1 De Baptismo, Opp. t. ii. f. 70. v.

2 See Faust. Socinus de Baptismo, c. 4. Opp. Fratr. Polon. t. i. p. 718. Slichtingius, ad loc. ib. t. vi. p. 26. agrees to the letter almost with Calvin. See Note P. at the end.

3 "I do not think they are to be heard, who hold that under water' in this "place, not water, but the HOLY SPIRIT is to be understood; as if the LORD "meant to make mention of the HOLY SPIRIT twice, and to say, 'Whosoever "is not born of the HOLY SPIRIT and the HOLY SPIRIT,' or 'whosoever is "not born of water which is the HOLY SPIRIT.""-Bucer de vi et efficacia Baptismi, Script. Anglican. p. 596.

"When the letter of the Law hath two things plainly and expressly speci"fied, water and the SPIRIT; water as a duty required on our parts, the SPIRIT as a gift which GOD bestoweth; there is danger in presuming so to interpret "it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needeth. We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, "but with ill advice."-Hooker, L. v. c. 59.

"That we may be thus born of the SPIRIT we must be born also of water, "which our SAVIOUR here puts in the first place. Not as if there were any "such virtue in water, whereby it could regenerate us; but because this is the "rite or ordinance appointed by CHRIST, wherein He regenerates us by His "HOLY SPIRIT: our regeneration is wholly the act of the SPIRIT of CHRIST."Seeing this [Baptism] is instituted by CHRIST Himself, as we cannot be born "of water without the SPIRIT, so neither can we in an ordinary way be born of "the SPIRIT without water, used or applied in obedience and conformity to His "institution. CHRIST hath joined them together, and it is not in our power to

"rule in expositions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal con

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struction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly "the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than this licen"tious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words,

as alchemy doth, or would do, the substance of metals, maketh "of any thing what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth "to nothing. Or however such voluntary exercise of wit might "be borne with otherwise; yet in places which usually serve, as "this doth, concerning regeneration by water and the HOLY "GHOST, to be alleged for grounds and principles, less is per"mitted. To hide the general consent of antiquity, agreeing in the "literal interpretation, they cunningly affirm, that certain have "taken those words as meant of material water, WHEN THEY KNOW

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THAT OF ALL THE ANCIENTS THERE IS NOT ONE TO BE NAMED THAT EVER DID OTHERWISE EITHER EXPOUND OR ALLEGE THE

"FLACE, THAN AS IMPLYING EXTERNAL BAPTISM."

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Rather, as the prophecy which these same persons alleged, that CHRIST namely shall "baptize with the HOLY GHOST, and with "fire," received its literal fulfilment at the day of Pentecost, and in this the later Baptism of the Apostles, we find, as well "a visible' descent of fire, as a secret miraculous infusion of the "SPIRIT; if on us He accomplish, likewise, the heavenly work "of our new birth, not with the SPIRIT alone, but with water "thereunto adjoined, sith the faithfullest expounders of His "words are His own deeds, let that, which His hand hath mani"festly wrought, declare what His speech did doubtfully utter."

To name individuals' in this universal consent is to disguise

"part them; he that would be born of the SPIRIT, must be born of water also." -Beveridge's Sermons, vol. i. p. 304.

1 Hooker, 1. c. See Note A. at the end.

2 Vazquez, in 3 Part. S. Thomæ Disp. 131. n. 22, refers to Justin Apol. 2. Tertullian de Baptismo, c. 11. n. 89. Cyprian, L. 3. ad Quirin. c. 25. Ambrose, L. 3. de Spiritu Sancto, c. 11. Jerome, in c. 16. Ezek. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa de Baptismo. Gregory Nazianzen. Orat. 40. in S. Bapt. and he adds "all the commentators, whom he omits as superfluous." Such are, to name the older, not only St. Chrysostome, St. Augustine, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Nonnus, but Theodorus of Mopsuestia, Apollinarius, Ammonius, Severus, (ap. Corderius Caten. in Joann. Evangel.) To these may be added,

the extent of the evidence: it is to point to a few single luminaries in the nightly sky, when the whole heavens are lighted and thickly set with the "stars which He has ordained." For those who, in their extant writings, were not led to explain this text of St. John, yet in their other language bear ample and implicit witness that they understood it in the same sense as the rest of the Christian Church. Every vestige of exposition of Scripture, every statement of Christian doctrine which can bear this way, implies the same. Thus, when one explains the words, "He shall lead 66 me to the waters of refreshment," of "the water of regenera"tion, whereby whoso is desirous of the Divine Grace, being baptized, layeth aside the old age of sin, and whereas he was decayed, hath his youth renewed;" or again, when David speaketh of the "blessedness of him to whom the LORD imputeth "no sin," saith", "foreseeing with prophetic eyes the grace of the "New Testament, and that remission which through the all holy Baptism is bestowed upon believers, he pronounceth them blessed, inasmuch as they received free remission of sin," no one could doubt how he would explain the words of St. John. No one could doubt that they who so expounded, had their minds

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Recognit. Clem. vi. 9. (Hom. xi. c. 26. Epit. c. 17, 18.) Origen in Ep. ad Rom. L. v. c. 8. p. 561, ed. de la Rue. Hom. 14. in Luc. p. 940. Nemesianus in Concil. Carthag. ap. Cyprian. p. 338. (ed. Bened.) Auctor Lib. de rebaptismate, apud eund. p. 355. Eusebius, ad Is. 3, 2. (Montfaucon Coll. Nov. t. ii. p. 368.) St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. xi. c. 9. Constitt. Apostol. L. vi. c. 15. Hilary of Arles, (Combefis. Bibl. Patr. v. 22.) S. Hippolytus in Theophan. § 8. Leo the Great, Ep. ad Demetriad. c. 11. Quæst. ad Antioch. c. v. Hesychius in Ps. 103, (Catena Corderii.) Pseudo-Martial Ep. ad Burdegalenses, Bibl. Patr. t. iv. p. 108. Ep. ad Tolosanos, c. 4. and 8. A late writer in the "Record" (1 am told) ventured the assertion that St. Chrysostome was the first who interpreted the text of Baptism! Of the witnesses here quoted he is the twentieth; and this without taking into account the manifest allusions to the text in S. Hermas, (L. iii. c. 16.) S. Irenæus, (iii. 17. 2.) S. Dionysius of Alex. (c. Samosaten. L. iv. p. 230.) S. Optatus, (de Schism. Donatist. v. 5.) Let any one disposed to disparage this evidence, think how he would appreciate it, if it supported any point in the system which he has made his own.

1 Theodoret, in Ps. xxii. 23, with whom St. Athanasius agrees, although not speaking quite so strongly. These are two, in whose extant works we happen to have no interpretation of the text of St. John.

2 Theodoret and St. Athanasius, in Ps. xli. 42, both alike positively.

filled with the benefits of Baptism, so that the very mention of forgiveness brought to their thoughts that full remission, whereby they were admitted into the kingdom of heaven; the very name of "waters of refreshment" recalled that health-giving stream, the Baptism of water and the SPIRIT, which had cleansed them of all sins, and give them a fresh life, the life from above. All such expositions are an à fortiori evidence that such writers must have understood, in like manner, the words of their LORD. Not only did they understand the words "water and the SPIRIT" of Baptism, but they regarded them as a sort of key to the rest of Holy Scripture, which any way bore upon the same subjects. Thence they inferred, that wherever, under the law, free remission of sins was set forth, there was an intimation of that gift of CHRIST in the Gospel, without which a man could not "enter into "the kingdom of Heaven;" thence, also, that when water was spoken of as cheering, cleansing, refreshing, there was a secret reference to that great mystery, wherein our LORD, by condescending to be baptized, should "sanctify water to the mystical 66 washing away of sin," and to the imparting of His holiness. And so, of those words, (St. John i. 12, 13.) "As many as re"ceived Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of "GOD, to them that believe on His name : which were born, not of "blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of "GOD;" whoso should explain them of the gift of GoD in Baptism, could not hesitate so to understand the words of our LORD. For this exposition is founded on the very notion, that the partaking of the Incarnation and the Christian relation of Sonship to God, is imparted through Baptism, and is not imparted without it. Yet even Pelagius' understood the gift here spoken of to be realized through Baptism; and among the Christian fathers, allusions to this text are frequent, even where our LORD's words are not quoted; because this declares more positively the Christian's privilege of the birth of GOD: our LORD's words are spoken negatively, that no one shall see the kingdom of Heaven without that birth.

1 His comment is, "Through Faith they are born of Him, through the re"newal of Baptism and grace of the HOLY SPIRIT."-App. ad Hieron. t. xi. p. 774.