must have understood the declaration of our Saviour, is, that unless a man be admitted into covenant with God by baptism, he cannot participate in the glory and blessedness of Messiah's kingdom.

To this Nicodemus answered, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" From the turn of expression here used, many have supposed that Nicodemus had no notion of a moral regeneration, and that the only meaning he could attach to our Saviour's declaration was the necessity of a second physical birth. But if we take into account that Nicodemus must have heard and understood the phrase, new birth, long before he came to Jesus, we shall see that his answer is equivalent to this, "I know that a heathen must be born again before he can be admitted into covenant with God; but how can a Jew, who, by his natural birth and descent from Abraham, is already admitted to all the privileges of the covenant; how can he be readmitted, or what need has he of moral regeneration?"

In the fifth verse our Saviour proceeds to repeat the universal necessity of regeneration, and to point out somewhat more particularly its nature and efficacy-" Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

It is not easy to see upon what principles of interpretation some theologians have denied that water baptism is here alluded to. We have already seen that the only new birth of which Nicodemus had any previous notion was a baptismal one; and we know that from the day of Pentecost no individual was admitted into the church of Christ, which is the kingdom of God, but by the washing of regeneration in water baptism. The regeneration, however, with which Nicodemus was familiar, was merely of water; it was a symbol merely, not a sacrament: whereas the Christian new birth was to be not of water only, but of the Spirit also; it was to be a sacrament, in which an inward spiritual grace accompanied the outward visible sign.

In the sixth verse it appears that a contrast is drawn between the privileges of the Jews, as born of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh; and the privileges of Christians as born anew of the Spirit. Every Jewish descendant of Abraham inherited from his great progenitor valuable privileges; but he inherited also from him that sinful nature subject to the dominion of the bodily appetites, which is in the New Testament so frequently designated by the term flesh. But, on the contrary, he who is born anew of the Spirit receives such a grant of spiritual assistance as enables the spirit to overcome the flesh, so that spirit, not flesh, shall be the predominating and ruling principle within him. And here we shall do well to hold strictly to the parallelism of the two covenants. Every child of Abraham was entitled to the privileges of the Mosaic law, and the enjoyment of the earthly Canaan: but if he neglected the ordinances of God, broke the ritual covenant, and perseveringly rejected the ritual means of reconciliation, he was cut off from the commonwealth of Israel. So also the Christian is, by his baptismal new birth, entitled to the privileges of the new covenant, and the enjoyment of the heavenly Jerusalem; but if he rejects the spiritual blessings to which he has attained a right, and counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sealed an unholy

66

thing," nothing then remains for him but to be cast forth and virtually separated from the body of Christ as a branch that is withered.

In the seventh and eighth verses, our Saviour again recurs to that which constituted the whole difficulty to the mind of Nicodemus; "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." Now why is there the sudden change from the singular to the plural? and why does Jesus alter the expression he had before used, and say, Ye must be born again, instead of a man must be born again? The change was made emphatically to declare that this new birth was requisite for Jews as well as for Gentiles; not only for men generally, but for you, the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh.

The next verse is the only one in which I would propose any variation from the authorized version: and that variation is to render TVEUμa at the commencement of it by spirit rather than wind,* And this alteration appears requisite on two grounds: first, upon the general principles of translation, which require that an important technical term shall be rendered uniformly, if possible, throughout any compact discourse in which it is frequently used. Now it is clear that πνευμα, which occurs four times in this discourse, does, in three of the cases, undoubtedly mean spirit. And besides, in no other case in the New Testament does TVεvμa occur in the sense of wind, aveμos being uniformly used for that purpose. The word pwvn is also more properly expressive of an articulate sound, than of a noise like that occasioned by the wind: while oñoν Dɛλɛɩ appears at least to refer to a subject capable of volition.

But besides these arguments from verbal criticism, the whole argument leads to the conclusion that wind cannot be the proper rendering of πνευμα in this text. The commentators generally presume that Nicodemus could not bring himself to believe that such great effects as deserved the name of a new birth could be produced by an invisible agent; and that Jesus directed his attention to the powerful effects produced by the wind, as an expressive illustration of the efficacy of the Spirit. But no where in this dialogue is it hinted that Nicodemus had any doubts of the power of invisible agents. As a Jew, he must have known that the world was created by an invisible agent, and that the formation and natural birth of every human being was the work of invisible agency; how then could he doubt but that the same invisible agent had power to effect the new birth also?

On the other hand, we have seen that his previous opinions must have disinclined him to receive two most fundamental truths respecting the kingdom of Messiah. He doubted that it could be indifferently open to Jew and Gentile, and he doubted whether there was any possible sense in which a descendant of Abraham could be born again. To these doubts Jesus addressed himself, saying in substance, "Marvel not if I have said that you, even you, the descendants of Abraham, must be born anew of water and of the Spirit, before you can be admitted into the kingdom of Messiah. The Spirit breathes, that is to say, exerts his spiritualizing agency where and upon whom

VOL. XII. NO. VIII.

In this I follow the Vulgate version.

3 x

he pleases. You are conscious of his dictates; but you cannot know that he comes to you in virtue of your natural descent from Abraham, and you cannot tell to what other classes and nations of men he may extend his saving efficacy. So is every one that is born of the Spirit; he is the object of an act of free grace, for which he can give no reason, but that such is the gracious will of the Spirit towards him."

On the remainder of this interesting discourse I have nothing new to offer; and indeed I find that the remarks which I have made are not so absolutely new as I imagined them to be. To those who have learned to consider the writings of Calvin and his followers as authoritative expositions of the sense of Scripture, I am aware that the manner in which regeneration is here spoken of will appear strange and unscriptural. But the theological technology of the Jews was a very different thing from that of the Calvinists, and no one was ever more aware of this difference than that most learned Calvinist, Lightfoot. T.

PSALM CIV.

SWELL high, my soul, thy grateful lays,
Exulting in thy Maker's praise.
O! Lord of majesty and might,

Clothed in Thy robe of living light,

Kind hast Thou veiled from mortal eye
Thy glories in the curtaining sky,
And bade the aerial waters meet

A mighty mass beneath Thy feet.

The winged wind that bears Thee, shrouds
Thy splendours in the chariot clouds!
While the angelic host rejoice

To hear and to obey thy voice!

The lightning hastens to fulfil
The awful sentence of Thy will!

The Lord bade earth arise;-the Lord

Fixed her firm centre by a word.

The gathering deep, at His command,

Sprang up and 'whelmed the drowning land;
Till mercy check'd the greedy main,

And spake the earth to life again.
Then sank the flood, and gentler rills
Burst fruitful from a thousand hills;
Where foamed the torrent, peaceful sail
Soft rivers down the smiling vale,
A liquid plenty; on whose brink
The thirsty cattle stoop to drink;
The wild ass scents the moistened air
And quaffs refreshing coolness there.
While all beside the banks are heard
The wood-notes of the merry bird,
As, watching o'er her prospering brood,
She tunes her voice to gratitude.

Thine, gracious Lord, the heaven-sent shower
That sooths the summer's sultry hour;
Thine, as around the sun-beams dance,
Each burst of fresh luxuriance.

Thence from the velvet womb of earth,
Spring fruits, and herbs, and trees to birth;
And cattle, as they idly stray,

Nip the soft grass that clothes their way.
To cheer man's thoughtless heart, the vine
Bears its rich load of gladsome wine;
The olives juicy odours shed,

To swell the honours of his head;
And health and strength are onward borne,
Triumphant in the waving corn.
Wide, Libanus, athwart each glade
Thy cedars spread an holy shade,
Their mighty branches upward fling,
And glory in eternal spring.
There, undisturbed, in simple rest,
The sparrow builds its little nest;
There broods above each pine-clad walk
The lonely summer-loving stork;
The goat, the rabbit, and the hare,
In fearless freedom wander there.
Lord, by Thy laws the infant sun
First learned his ordered course to run;
And the pale moon, with feebler ray,
To catch the sinking fires of day.
Shrouded in that uncertain light,
Roam forth the wanderers of the night;
The lion quits his forest-sward,
And seeks provision of the Lord.
But lo! on balmy zephyrs borne,
Wake the faint blushes of the morn;
Instinctively the savage train
Speed to their secret haunts again,
And man resumes his daily toil,
Sole monarch of the kindred soil.
Lord! in each view we ceaseless trace
The wonders of almighty grace;
These are the works thy wisdom plann'd,
The varied creatures of Thy hand!
Nor these alone glad tribute bring
To Thee, their Maker, and their King;
Sporting around the coral caves,
Where Ocean rolls his ancient waves;
Unnumbered forms their pastimes keep,
And animate the busy deep.

There go the ships-and in the sun
Basks idly the Leviathan;

While countless myriads, by his side,
Among the dimpled waters glide.
These to Thy mercies anxious flee,
And ask and gain support from Thee;
Or conscious, hide their trembling form,
And quake beneath the mighty storm;
At Thy rebuke, dissolve again,
And melt into the empty main.
Born in that smile, whose faintest ray
Beams brightly a celestial day,
Calms every storm, and dries all tears,
The halcyon of a thousand spheres.

O! if, my God, Thy glorious power
Alone can rule the varying hour;
If, at thy frown, in mortal dread,
Earth comes to hide her palsied head;
If, at thy touch, the mountains glow
With flames amid its wreaths of snow;
Then may Thy mercy ever be
Eternal as Thy majesty!

O! bless the Lord, my soul, and raise
The voice He gave to sing His praise;
And may the humble tribute rise
A grateful offering to the skies.
Vengeance shall seal the sinner's fate,
And all his "house be desolate ;"
While with himself, his dearest schemes
Fade as a madman's idle dreams.

Be thine, my soul, an holier, happier, strain,
To hymn the mercy that thou hop'st to gain.

AUGMENTATION OF SMALL LIVINGS.

E. B.

MR. EDITOR,-Since much has been said of late respecting the disproportion of emoluments in the Church Establishment, may I be permitted to suggest one plain and simple mode of improvement in this respect, to which no reasonable objection can be urged. By the 5th of Queen Anne, cap. 4, the Archbishops and Bishops of each Diocese are required to inform themselves, by the oaths of witnesses, of the clear improved yearly value of every benefice, with care of souls, within their respective jurisdictions, which does not amount to 50l. per annum, and to certify the same into the Exchequer, in order that such benefices may be discharged from the payment of the Firstfruits and Tenths, and that all above the value should, by their First-fruits and Tenths, contribute to the augmentation of the former. The Governors of the Royal Bounty have proceeded in the regular course of augmentation since the year 1714, on the valuation then made of all ecclesiastical preferment; but it is computed that 300 years will elapse before all the livings, already certified as under 50l., will, under the present system, be augmented even to that sum. the present improved value of all ecclesiastical property, to which no care of souls is annexed, were ascertained, which the same act of Queen Anne might, I presume, empower the Bishop to do, and the First fruits and Tenths of such property applied to the augmentation of such small benefices, in the course of fifteen years each benefice would be rendered sufficient for the residence of a beneficed clergyman. Nothing can be more equitable than that every ecclesiastical preferment, which has not the care of souls, should contribute the actual value of its First-fruits and Tenths to the augmentation of benefices which have the care of souls.* T. R. B.,

Napton Vicarage, Warwickshire.

* Our Correspondent should have suggested some plan by which Lay Impropriators might have assisted in the fulfilment of his laudable proposal.

If