Julian Period, 4740. Vulgar Era, 27. 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and Temple at sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: Jerusalem. 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandize. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. 18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou dost these things? 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. 23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in ought to be translated-My house shall be called a house of (a) De bello Judaico, lib. 6. chap. vi. Mede's works, p. 44. fol. Camb. 1677. (b) That great master of our noble language, Jeremy Taylor, in his second sermon on the return of prayers, has this beautiful passage: Prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest. Prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, and untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity-it is the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, or chooses a frontier garrison to indulge in contemplation.-Taylor's Discourses, &c. vol. i. p. 88. Longman's edit. 1807. (c) Vide Mede's sermon on this text-Works, fol. p. 44. (d) Vide Archbishop Newcome's notes to his Harmony of the New Testament, p. 7. Julian Pe- the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw Temple at riod, 4740. the miracles which he did. Vulgar Era, 27. The first 24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25 And needed not that any should testify of man : for he knew what was in man. Jerusalem. SECTION VI. Conversation of Christ with Nicodemus 1. JOHN iii. 1-21. 1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, Jerusalem. a ruler of the Jews: 15 The conversation of our Lord with Nicodemus, has given rise to more discussion and controversy than any other passage of the New Testament. This circumstance, indeed, ought not to excite surprize. On the interpretation of this passage depend the most important decisions, which can engage the attention of a Christian. The questions how, or when, we are first admitted into covenant with God-the necessity of the means of grace-the efficacy and meaning of the sacramentswith many more interesting considerations, are essentially connected with the interpretation given to the conversation of our Lord with one of the heads of the Jewish Sanhedrim. The occason was such as to justify the expectation that some new and important doctrine would be revealed to the world; suited alike to the state of mind, the condition of the inquirer, and the sublimity of the Messiah's character and office. This doctrine was the absolute necessity of Regeneration, or being born again. The various interpretations given to our Lord's address may be reduced to two principal divisions: one class of Christians believes that regeneration is a spiritual change wrought upon any person, whether an infant, or an adult, in the right use of baptism, whereby he is translated from a spiritual state in Adam, to a spiritual state in Christ. They believe that regeneration is so appropriated to baptism, as to exclude any other new birth, which is not considered in conjunction with that ordinance. They believe that the water is an outward and visible sign, of an inward and spiritual grace which attends the administration of the sacrament of baptism: and the consequence of baptism is, that the baptized person is taken into covenant with God, and is admitted into a different state with respect to God, than he was at his natural birth. He was born a child of wrath, he is now a child of God-he is washed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and obtains the privileges of an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Another class of Christians, on the contrary, believe that regeneration is a change which takes place at some uncertain period of life, when, by the mercy of God, the heart is changed, and the sinner becomes a new man, possessed of new perceptions, affections, and dispositions; and becomes capable of employments, and satisfactions, to which he was before a stranger. He can frequently, some assert that he can always tell, the very moment when the change was effected. This re Julian Period, 4740. 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Jerusalem. Vulgar Era, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: 27. The first Passover. generation is supposed to be a general revolution in the moral nature and reasonable faculties of man, effected by the power of God's spirit in the way of creation, or miraculous operation; and as an implantation of motives or new qualities. It is the turning point from evil to good, in which a radical change of all the faculties of the soul takes place. It is as completely a new birth of the moral or spiritual part of man, as the entrance of a child into the world is the birth of the body. It is distinctly perceivable by the intellect when it commences. It is a restoration of the image of God in man, which can never be again effaced: but the favoured sinner, to whom this great blessing is imparted, is elected to holiness, as the means of salvation; and though he may sometimes sin, he shall never finally fall away and perish. Such are the two divisions of opinion, which I have endea- One chief cause of the difficulty which has attended the inter- Julian Pe- for no man can do these miracles that thou dost, except Jerusalem. riod, 4740. God be with him. Vulgar Æra, 27. The first cluded, that as Nicodemus was a master in Israel, he must have The Jews believed that Abraham before his call was an A priest was made a new creature, by the oil which was poured upon his head, at his inauguration into his office (e). A man who is newly born does not immediately receive the spirit from above until he is circumcised. But when he is circumcised the spirit is poured upon him with a heavenly effusion. When he has become a youth, and studies the law, a greater effusion is poured out upon him. When he observes the precepts of the law, a greater effusion is poured out upon him. When he is established in life, and trains up his family in the Julian Period, 4740. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I Jerusalemə say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see Vulgar Era, the kingdom of God. 27. The first ways of the Lord, then he becomes in all things a perfect These things were well known to Nicodemus. He must 66 We learn, from the context, that Nicodemus had seen Christ perform the miracle of cleansing the temple, and perhaps some others. He probably understood this action to be an assertion of divine power; and he came to be satisfied upon this point. The promised deliverer was now daily expected, and the establishment of his kingdom, which was believed to be both of a temporal, and yet of a spiritual nature, was immediately anticipated. Nicodemus, like the rest of his countrymen, was looking for the Messiah, or the prophet who should precede him; and, as the learned Lightfoot observes (g), expected that Christ would take the Jewish people as they were, and they, without any inward change of mind and heart at all, should be translated into an outward changed condition of happiness and earthly glory, as much as they could desire or imagine. No, said our Lord, there is more required of him, and in him, that desires to see and partake of the happiness of that kingdom, and those days: he must suffer a change in himself, and in his principles, and be as if he were born anew." Such, says the learned Lightfoot, is the connexion of this speech of Christ, with that of Nicodemus. The meaning of the speech of our Lord must be collected further from the difference between the kingdom of heaven expected by Nicodemus, and the spiritual kingdom which Christ came to establish. Perceiving the mingled feelings of doubt and veneration with which the Jewish senator approached him, he immediately, in contradiction to the prevailing error, assures Nicodemus that his kingdom was not of the nature he supposed, and that it was necessary that a man should be born again of water and of the spirit, to become a partaker of its privileges. As men were admitted into the Church of Moses by circumcision, so shall they be admitted into the new dispensation by baptism. As by the one rite a human being is taken into covenant with God, and is considered in a new relationship, so by the other rite the same privileges shall be given, in the new economy. You also, (v. 3.) who are Jews, must, like the proselytes whom you receive, and the children you initiate, you also must be born again. This was the doctrine Nicodemus could not comprehend. He could not suppose that a Jew, who had already been received into covenant with God, was to be considered as a stranger, and he therefore interpreted the words literally. (v. 4.) To rectify the error, our Lord repeats the words, with the addition, except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You also, though a master and teacher in Israel, must not hope to partake of the privileges of the Messiah's kingdom, unless you enroll yourself among the number of my disciples, be baptized |