therefore the entrance into the Christian society on earth is called by the same name which belongs properly to our entrance into the society of just men made perfect in heaven; it is called by no less a name than being born again.

Now the second birth-in its literal sense, our being raised up incorruptible to enter into the true kingdom of God,-is the work of God's Holy Spirit. "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." And of the second birth figuratively, that is, our being so changed in principles as to be willing to enter into what may be called the kingdom of God on earth,—it is said no less, that it is the work of the same Holy Spirit. Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." But of this second birth figuratively, it is said also, that a man must be born "of water and of the Spirit ;" and it is this expression, "being born of water," that has given occasion to many frivolous controversies and foolish superstitions. But consider the various passages in which the baptism by water is opposed to the baptism by the Holy Spirit. "I, indeed," says John the Baptist of himself, "baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, who shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." So our Lord to His disciples, after His resurrection, "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Again, speaking even of

Christians, it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, that Peter and John were sent down to Samaria, to give the Holy Spirit to the converts whom Philip had made; "for as yet," it is added, "He was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus;" that is, they had received the baptism of water, but not the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now what is meant by these two things? For it is clearly impossible that a mere outward ceremony, such as putting a person into the water, or pouring water upon him, should be spoken of in such language as is here used by our Lord. First, what is meant by the baptism by water? This John the Baptist explains, when he says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance." The natural meaning of the ceremony of baptizing with water was the putting off the defilements of sin, the being cleansed in spirit from sin, as the body is washed by water. To be born of water then, is in other words to be prepared for the society of Christ by a hearty repentance; to have cast off all former sins, and to be ready with a pure and single heart to receive the teaching of His Spirit. To be baptized with the Spirit, as an introduction into the Christian society, has had at some times a wider signification than at others. In the time of the first Christians it meant particularly the receiving the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, which were bestowed by the laying on of the

Apostles' hands, as a sign of the great power of God. But as it does not appear that all Christians received these gifts, the baptism of the Spirit is to be looked for in another thing, which was more universal, namely, the faith in Jesus Christ, required of every man, together with his repentance, before he was admitted into the Christian Church. "No man," says St. Paul, "can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost;" and it was an especial work of the Spirit to present to the mind the things which concerned the Person of Christ. So that the water and Spirit here spoken of by our Lord, so far as they relate to the entrance into the kingdom of God in its lower sense, that is, into the Christian Church on earth, seem to apply most properly to the repentance of past sins, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, required of those who are received to baptism.

But this is not the sense in which it most concerns us to dwell upon them. We have been all long since admitted into the Christian Church, and the value of that admission depends very much on the state of the church at any given time; it may do very little towards gaining us an entrance into the true kingdom of God. But into that true kingdom, that state of eternal life and joy, we must all be born by water and by the Spirit. These are they which must prepare us through what is well called our travail time of life, for the moment of

our heavenly birth hereafter; without these we shall never come to it. By constant repentance, constant faith, and not faith only, but all the other graces of the Holy Spirit, each in their order, -we are gradually ripened for our appointed hour. In this sense we may say, if we will, that we are born daily, by daily becoming more and more ready to be born; but the actual birth is at our resurrection, or else, in a lower sense, when we are admitted into the Church of Christ on earth for the first time. But as in this sense it is past with all of us, and as in that higher sense which alone concerns us, it can only come after our deaths; so there is no birth to be looked for now, as some one sudden change, which shall divide, as by a great gulf, the latter parts of our lives from those which have gone before. We cannot be born here any more, but we may by water and the Spirit be prepared for a real birth hereafter. The preparation may not cease till the time of that birth be fully come. It is still by the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, all agreeing in one, that we are brought nearer and nearer to the redemption of our body, to the real resurrection, the real birth, into the kingdom of God-not by "water "water" only, that is,

by repentance, but by "water and blood," by our repentance, and our grateful faith in God's love through Christ; and not by these only, but by the

constant indwelling of "the Spirit" of Him who

raised up Jesus from the dead, that abiding with us, and ripening in us all His blessed fruits of love, and peace, and joy, He may, when our spirits are fully quickened, quicken also our mortal bodies,-that having heard Christ's call from the death of sin, and having arisen to His spiritual life, we may hear it also from the very grave, and come forth, and be born again to a life which shall never die.

RYDAL CHAPEL,

July 15th, 1832.