vious ages. Whereas we know that the primitive church lived in 'the fulness of time,' when God sent forth his Son, and the spirit of adoption, and brought believers up from the state of servants into that of sons. This argument moreover proceeds in the wrong direction; it makes the characters. of men the rule of judging the word of God, instead of making the word of God the rule of judging the characters of men. The true argument is this: He that is born of God doth not commit sin'; therefore all the saints of the Jewish dispensation, and all in later ages, except a part of the primitive church, were not born of God.' Let the judgment cut where it will, the 'seed of God' must not be disgraced. He that born of God, has the life of God in the place of the father-part of his natural life, and Jesus Christ is his own brother. He has in the essence of his life, the same security from sin that Christ has. The blood royal of heaven is in his veins; and that blood never was and never will be disgraced by sin.

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The great objection to these views is, that they seem to make void nearly all that has been called religion in the world from the beginning. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God; therefore,' says the objector, according to your theory, Abraham and David, with all the worthies of ancient and modern ages, could not enter heaven.' This objection will be much diminished by a consideration of the natural meaning of the word birth. It seems to be generally imagined that the second birth is the beginning of the process of spiritual gestation. Whereas, the natural birth is the end of the process of natural gestation; and there is no reason why the spiritual should not follow the order of the natural. The proper idea of the second birth is, that it is the end of the primary process of spiritual growth; the concluding attainment of those who seek after God. With this idea, we may admit that the Jewish saints, and others of like experience, though they had not received the spirit of adoption, and therefore were not born of God, yet were embryo candidates for the second birth. Indeed many of them were more than candidates; they were 'heirs;' (see Gal. 4: 1;) i. e. they had the sure promise of the future sonship; they were already sons in the mind of God, though they differed nothing from servants' in their own experience. At the conclusion of the Jewish dispensation, when the fulness of the time was come,' God sent forth his Son and Spirit; and all the spiritual embryos of preceding ages, as well as those in this world, received the sonship. This view alone accords with the fact that Christ was the firstborn.' See Heb. 11: 39, 40; 1 Peter 1: 12, &c.

Regeneration was the harvest of the Jewish dispensation; and it is the harvest of individual religious experience. To as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God.' The receiving him was the sowing of the seed; and the becoming sons of God was a subsequent harvest. Even in the primitive church little appears to have been said distinctly of the second birth until near the period of the Second Coming. John, writing in 'the last hour,' (see 1 Epis. 2: 18,) speaks more plainly and fully of the character and state of the sons of God than any other writer in the New Testament.

It is plainly discoverable in the writings of Paul that there were in the

primitive church two classes of believers. One of them (which may be called the highest class) he distinguishes as spiritual; (see 1 Cor. 2: 15; Gal. 6: 1;) as 'perfect' see 1 Cor. 2: 6. Phil. 3: 15. &c. The other he calls 'carnal,' and 'babes.' See 1 Cor. 3: 1, Heb. 5: 13. This lowest class coincides with the embryo class of the Jewish dispensation. See Gal. 4: 1. &c. The highest class only are properly called the sons of God. There is reason to believe that this class was not developed until a considerable period after the day of Pentecost: Paul appears to have first apprehended and preached the 'power of Christ's resurrection.' The two classes were blended more or less. But in the time when John wrote his epistle, they had become clearly distinct. When the darkness was past, and the true light shone,' the sons of God were manifested.

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The views that have been presented lead to the conclusion that the primitive church differed essentially from any church that has existed either before or since. The mark of its distinction may be stated thus-It had Perfection at its core. While Jesus Christ was on earth, the church that gathered around him, certainly had a perfect centre, however imperfect it might have been in its external parts. So the church that was subsequently formed under the administration of Peter and Paul, as it is described in John's epistle, certainly had for its nucleus a class of men who were free from sin-sons of God without rebuke.' This perfect nucleus was the ruling power of the whole church. the moral engine at the centre, which was constantly drawing into itself and conforming to its own nature, the raw material' of imperfect spirituality that gathered around it. The previous Jewish church had for its nucleus only a class of imperfect spiritualists; and its raw material' was a class of formalists who had no spiritual life whatever. When Christ came, 'the light of the moon became as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days;' in other words, the lowest class in the church became what the highest was before, and the highest class became sons of God. See Zech. 12: 8. The peculiar constitution of the church continued only long enough to become a model. At the Second Coming the sons of God were taken away, and the imperfect saints' who were left became the Fathers of a second Jewish church among the Gentiles, which continues to this day. Whenever the harvest of the Gentiles comes, we may look for another church formed on the primitive model, having sons of God at its core. The mistake of the churches is, in allowing only one class of believers, and that the lowest. A similar mistake has existed among Perfectionists in allowing also only one class, and that the highest. The church that will save the world, must make room for both classes, giving the predominance to them that have ceased from sin.

§ 31. THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF THE SECOND BIRTH.

'EXCEPT a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' John 3: 5.

In the original of this passage, there is nothing connected with the word translated the Spirit,' which should give it a specific meaning, and entitle it to the definite article. Literally translated, the passage would stand thus: 'Except a man be born of water and spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' And as the Greek word pneuma primarily means breath, air, or wind, (being used in this latter sense in the subsequent context of this very passage, ver. 8,) and is applied to spiritual existences only by metaphor, it is evident that Christ's intention was, not to designate directly the Spirit,' but an element naturally belonging to the same category with water, viz., air; so that the most literal translation possible would be this: Except a man be born of water and air he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' It is impossible, we know, that any English translation should present the precise aspect of the original in this case, or should make the transition from the literal, to the figurative meaning of pneuma, and from the figurative, back to the literal, which occurs several times in John 3: 5-9, so easy and natural as it is in the Greek; because we have no single word that is ordinarily used to signify both air and spirit. Yet we think our translators have taken an unwarrantable liberty in rendering pneuma, in some cases wind, and in others spirit, in the same passage. They make a discourse, which in the original is well connected, to the English reader very incoherent; especially in the eighth verse. That the whole passage may be seen in its original form, we will translate it, using the word pneuma itself, instead of any version of it, wherever it occurs. Except a man be born of water and pneuma, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the pneuma is pneuma. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The pneuma bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the pneuma.' Since the words water and pneuma, in the first part of the passage, are both of them, in their literal sense, names of material elements, and it appears from what follows that one of them is used in symbolical way to denote a spiritual element, it is safe to conclude that both of them are so used: i. e., since pneuma stands not merely for literal air, but as a symbol of spiritual air, we conclude that water stands not merely for literal water, but as a symbol of spiritual water. Christ's meaning then is Except a man be born of two elements, which are to the soul as water and air to the body, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Water is the element of external purification, and air is the element of internal life. So that, laying aside the symbols, we may paraphrase the passage thus :— Except a man be born of an outward cleansing, and an inward quickening, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'

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There is another line of argument by which we may reach the same conclusion concerning the meaning of John 3: 5. At the close of Christ's discourse on the second birth, Nicodemus asked him, 'How can these things be?' He answered, Art thou a master [i. e. teacher] in Israel, and knowest not these things?' In this answer he plainly intimated that the doctrine he had delivered was taught in the Old Testament, and ought to have been known to a professed teacher of the scriptures. We turn then to the Old Testament to find the original, of which Christ's teaching was a copy. In Ezekiel 36: 25-27, it is written, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' Here we discover, first, a prediction of the second birth: for as the heart is the seat of life, the taking away of one heart, and giving of another, must be death and birth; and, secondly, a twofold agency, described by the very terms that Christ uses in John 3: 5, viz., water and spirit. 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you; [but this is not all;] a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.' That word also' plainly implies that the new heart and new spirit' is something over and above the sprinkling of clean water.' A glance at this prediction shows that it was the source of Christ's doctrine of the second birth, the very passage from which he derived the terms water and spirit,—and well he might wonder at Nicodemus' ignorance. But what light does this passage throw on the meaning of the word water as Christ used it? What kind of water is here made one of the agents of regeneration? Our answer is not doubtful: God promises to sprinkle his people with water so clean that it shall wash away all their filthiness and all their idols.' This must certainly be cleaner water than that of Jordan, or any Baptist pool. Its purifying properties take effect on the spiritual and moral character. In the light of this passage, we may paraphrase John 3: 5, thus: Except a man be born of that water which shall cleanse him from all his filthiness, and from all his idols, and of that Spirit which shall take away his stony heart, and give him a heart to keep God's judgments and do them, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.' Here is the outward cleansing and the inward quickening which we found before.

We will notice one or two other passages in the New Testament in which the same twofold agency appears. John says, (1 Epis. 5: 4-6,) Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood.' Here that new birth, which gives victory over the world, is made the effect of faith in him whose operation is twofold-by water and blood. Now it is certain that the blood in this case is spiritual; for John says in this same epistle that 6 the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin; and we know that sin is

purged only by the Spirit of the living God. The blood by which Jesus Christ 'came, was that which he brought from heaven, (see John 6: 51,) that which he poured through the veins of his spiritual body, the church, communicating to every member the divine nature; thus effecting the second birth, and giving victory over the world. If then he came by spiritual blood, he came also by spiritual water. There would be not only an utter incongruity of idea, but an absolute violation of the plain import of John's language, in construing it as though he meant to say that Jesus Christ came by his own blood, but resorted to Jordan for water. This passage is evidently a parallel of John 3: 5, to be explained as that is, by comparison with Ezekiel's promise. We may explain it thus:- This is he who came to effect the second birth, and give victory over the world, by cleansing power and inward life.'t

Again, Paul says, (Titus 3: 5,) 'According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' Here is water and spirit. The phraseology in this case, as clearly as in Jno. 3: 5, indicates its derivation from Ezekiel 36: 25-27. The washing of regeneration' corresponds to the 'sprinkling with clean water;' and 'the renewing of the Holy Ghost,' is almost identical with the giving a new heart and a new spirit.'

To the same class we must refer Mark 16: 16-' He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.' Here are two requisites of salvation. And as we have found in the previous case, that the two requisites of salvation are outward cleansing and inward life, it is to be presumed that this passage teaches the same doctrine. We need not, however, rely on this presumption. The passage itself, viewed in connection with the whole discourse in which it occurred, requires no collateral aid to establish its meaning. Comparing Mark 16: 16, with Acts 1: 4-8, and Matt. 28: 19, (all items of Christ's parting instructions to his disciples,) we find the discourse, put together, amounted to this:-John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Tarry therefore at Jerusalem, until ye receive this baptism. Then go and teach all nations, baptizing them with the same baptism; i. e., not in the name of John, but in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He that believeth and is thus baptized, shall be saved,' &c. The fact that the disciples did not at first thus understand this discourse, is no valid objection to our paraphrase. They wholly misunderstood the direc

*For a full discussion of the import of the expression, the blood of Jesus Christ, see the article on the New Covenant, p. 139.

+ It is probable that there is an allusion in 1 John 5: 6, to the fact recorded in John 19: 34. While Christ was on the cross, 'one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.' This fact was doubtless recorded, and may be properly viewed, as a visible symbol of that spiritual effusion by which Christ redeems the church. As such, it furnishes several interesting suggestions: 1. It shows that the redeeming influence is twofold. 2. It exposes the error of those who think that one of those influences is the water of earthly streams. The blood and water of salvation both flow from the same fountain--the heart of Jesus Christ. 3. It suggests the relation which the true spiritual blood and water of Jesus Christ bear to each other.As we have shown above that the first is an inward, and the second an outward agency, so in the symbol, the blood issued from the very heart, while the water proceeded from the pericardium which surrounds the heart.