unable to comprehend its nature and necessity. His answer to our Lord declares this most significantly. "Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How can a man be born, when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"" (a) He knew little or nothing of the holiness of God, of his own corruption and sinfulness, or of that mighty power, whereby the Lord createth men anew for his service and kingdom. He cannot therefore at all comprehend what our Saviour told him, as to the necessity of regeneration. Brethren, let not us despise or look down upon him. We are all by nature, like this Jewish ruler, ignorant of spiritual things, and ready to cry out with him, "How can these things be."

The Twenty-eighth Homily of our Church, the Homily for Whitsunday, thus remarks on this conversation. "Where the Holy Ghost worketh, there nothing is impossible: as may appear by the inward regeneration and sanctification of mankind. When Christ said to Nicodemus, 'Unless a man be born anew of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,' he was greatly amazed in his mind, and began to reason with Christ, demanding how a man (a) 1 John iii. 4.

might be born which was old. • Can he enter,' saith he, into his mother's womb again, and so be born anew?' Behold a lively pattern of a fleshly and carnal man! He had little or no intelligence of the Holy Ghost: and therefore he goeth bluntly to work, and asketh how this ⚫thing were possible to be true: whereas otherwise if he had known the great power of the Holy Ghost in this behalf, that it is he which inwardly worketh the regeneration or new birth of mankind, he would never have marvelled at Christ's words, but would rather take occasion thereby to praise and glorify God."

Observe how in this passage our Church classes all natural men with Nicodemus, as ignorant of spiritual things, and of God's mighty work of regeneration: and in truth we none of us know anything further on this subject, than as God himself teaches us. Mark, therefore, what the Lord here teaches Nicodemus. It was in answer to his astonished inquiry, as to how man could be born again, that Christ told him further in the words of our text, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This then is Christ's explanation of regeneration. To be regenerated or born anew

means to be born of water and of the Spirit: not to be born of the Spirit alone, as many explain away the words; nor to be born of water only, as many others assert: but to be born of water and of the Spirit.

Let me beseech all to mark the exact words, and to ponder well their meaning. Jesus, the only true God, Jesus, who cannot lie, assures us that except any one, young, old, or middle-aged, wise or ignorant, rich or poor, whether he be called Jew, Turk, Heathen, or Christian, "Except he be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

Lord, humble us to receive and attend to thy words!

As it will not be possible to consider all the subjects that these words open to us in one discourse, I propose by God's help, to consider on this occasion the subject of spiritual regeneration; what it is to be born of the Spirit; and in the following discourse to consider the connexion between baptismal and spiritual regeneration; between being born of water, and being born of the Spirit.

Let us now consider shortly these three things 1, our need of spiritual regeneration; 2, in what this consists; 3, what are its effects.

1. Consider our need of spiritual regeneration. This arises from the corruption of our nature. We are "born in sin and children of wrath." (b) "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” (c) "That which is born of the flesh is flesh:"(d) carnal, selfish, earthly, sensual, averse from God, is the heart and mind of every one who is born into the world. How strikingly does St. Paul declare this truth to the Romans, "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit: for to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." (e)

This is a plain passage. By the flesh is to be understood, not the body, but the corruption of our nature: and to be in the flesh, or to be carnally minded, is to be under the dominion of our corrupt nature; concerning which God declares here, "To be carnally minded is death." "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." This

(b) Catechism.
(c) Jeremiah xvii. 9.

(d) John iii. 5.
(e) Rom. viii. 5-8.

is what our Church calls "original sin," even "the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil; so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit, and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation." (f) How necessary must regeneration be to those who are thus corrupt, ungodly, and evil. Man is earthly, inclined to sin, and averse to God; and before he can enter heaven, he must become heavenly-minded, a hater of sin, and a lover of God, and of divine things. Regeneration then is absolutely necessary for him, that he may not die eternally. And this especially when we consider further, that fallen men have no power to get the better of their corruptions, and to attain that new and heavenly life, which prepares them for the kingdom of heaven. To repent of sin, to believe the humbling doctrines of the Gospel, and to lift up the heart in prayer to the eternal and all-holy God, is what no man will do, without God's special grace disposing, and inclining, and enabling him. "No man can come to me," Christ

(ƒ) Article ix.