fully expressed in the vow made in his name at his baptism.

"7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, "ye must be born again.

"8. The wind bloweth where it lifteth, " and thou heareft the found thereof, but "canft not tell whence it cometh, and

66

whither it goeth: fo is every one that is "born of the Spirit."

How different were even the apostles themselves, before and after they had received the gift of the Holy Ghoft! Do not their actions after this memorable event prove them quite new men? from that period, they became refolute and firm in their duty, in defiance of all difficulties and dangers. Nor was this first of bleffings confined to them: daily experience proves that the facred influence of the holy spirit has been constantly imparted to the affistance of the fincere and well-meaning Christian, and we know that it will never

be withheld from thofe who afk it faithfully.

66

9. Nicodemus answered and faid un"to him, How can these things be?

"10. Jefus anfwered and faid unto him, "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest "not these things?

"11. Verily, verily, I fay unto thee, "we speak that we do know, and testify "that we have seen; and ye receive not "our witnefs."

Nicodemus ftill continues in his miftake: had he understood that our Saviour was speaking of the fpirit of God, he would have had no fuch caufe for furprize, as the Jewish law was a fhadow of good things to come; but the attention of the Jews, even of the best-meaning amongst them, (of which number Nicodemus feems to have been) was so taken up with the ceremonial part of their law as to prevent them, in a great measure, from fixing their minds on fpiritual things. Our bleffed Lord reprov

ed

ed him for his ignorance: as a master or teacher of Ifrael, he ought to have been better informed.

66

12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how fhall ye believe "if I tell you of heavenly things?

66

13. And no man hath afcended up "to Heaven but he that came down from "Heaven, even the Son of Man which is " in Heaven."

Our Saviour reminds him, that he had drawn comparisons between fublime and spiritual mysteries, and earthly objects, which were conftantly in his view, and yet he understood not, and adds, how then would he be able to comprehend those glorious myfteries without fuch condefcenfion as he had been graciously pleased to indulge him with.

Before the Son of God defcended from Heaven, for their instruction, mankind were, comparatively fpeaking, in a state of the deepest ignorance of heavenly

know

knowledge they had occafionally been indulged with a feeble ray of light, but at beft could only be faid "to fee, as "through a glass, darkly;" but our blessed Lord brought life and immortality to light by his gospel.

Before I quit the last verse, allow me just to remark, that it contains another declaration which must be entirely passed over by those who deny our Lord's divinity; but to fuch may we not aptly apply the text which fays, "Eyes have they, "and fee not; ears have they, and hear "not."

66

14. And as Mofes lifted up the ferpent "in the wilderness, even fo must the Son " of Man be lifted up;

"15. That whofoever believeth in him " should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The Son of Man was to be lifted up, that is to say, to be crucified; and as those who were bitten by ferpents were healed when they looked up to the fer

pent

pent which Mofes had made and placed on high for that purpose, so in like manner must we continually look up to a crucified Saviour for relief from the wiles of the old ferpent, man's man's enemy from the beginning of the world: this faith will make us love, serve and obey him, and will fecure to us the most ineftimable of all bleffings, eternal life.

"16. For God fo loved the world that "he gave his only - begotten Son; that whofoever believeth in him fhould not perish, but have everlasting life."

66

66

What a bleffing to Adam and his fallen race! Let us, for a moment, fuppofe the world in that ftate of condemnation to which Adam, by his disobedience, had reduced it, and that we were informed nothing less than that God the Son, the onlybegotten of God the Father, fhould condefcend to take our nature upon him, come into the world in a poor, mean and despised station, live many years in this

uncom