we desire them to suspend their opinion, or at least their judgment a little, while we remind them, that the governor's speech to the bridegroom, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse," does not imply even such a supposition; but an evident reference to the manner in which the entertainment was conducted, a manner much preferable to that customarily followed. Nor can these wise people in their own conceit, rationally think, that Jesus ordered, or expected, that all the wine he had furnished should be expended at this entertainment; though, according to the Jewish custom on these occasions, it continued a week. Permit us likewise to observe, that there might be a very important. reason assigned for our Lord's furnishing such abundance; because, if the quantity had been considerably less, the miracle would have been much less apparent, and the enemies of Christianity, ever ready to grasp at the shadow of the pretence, might have denied that a miracle was wrought at all, it having been easy to convey away a small quantity of water, and substitute the like quantity of wine in its place; whereas, such a deception must be allowed impracticable, in so large a quantity, the transmutation being momentary. The deists have likewise made much parade of argument concerning the size of these water-pots. In this we give them their utmost scope, persuaded, that all which they can say on that head, will not in the least tend to invalidate the Christian cause. CHAP. V. Expulsion of the Profaners of the Temple. Jesus visits and disputes with Nicodemus. Baptizes in Judea. Instructs a poor Samaritan. Heals a sick Person at Capernaum. Retires again to Nazareth, and is expelled thence by his impious Countrymen, OUR blessed Lord, immediately on his arrival at Jerusalem, repaired to the temple, nor was he a little shocked at beholding a place dedicated to the solemn service of Almighty God, so prostituted to purposes of fraud and avarice, and become the resort of traders of every kind. Such abuse could not long escape his notice of correction, having an absolute right to chastise so flagrant a perversion of a place, that, strictly speaking, was his own. The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts." Accordingly, the blessed Jesus, whose pious soul was vexed at their profanation of the sacred place, drove out the traders, and over-set the tables of the moneychangers, saying unto them that sold doves, "take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandize." These mercenary wretches appeared to have been struck at once with a conscious-" ness of their guilt, and the severity of our Lord's reproof, as they immediately departed, without making the least resistance. But our Lord's conduct in this affair, carry The blessed Jesus having thus, by diversing with it every token of zeal, for which means, confirmed the faith of his disciples, and attested the truth and divinity of his mission, among those with whom he had been brought up, departed from Cana, and proceeded towards Jerusalem, in order to keep the approaching passover. No. 2. the ancient prophets were so remarkable, the council assembled, and determined to inquire by what authority he attempted such a reformation, requiring, at the same time, a demonstrative proof of the divinity of his commission. Н To gratify their curiosity, our blessed Lord referred them only to the miracle of his own resurrection; "Destroy," says he, laying his hand on his breast, "this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." The rulers, mistaking his meaning, imagined that he referred to the superb and lofty temple finished by Herod, and therefore told him such relation was highly improbable, nor had they the least reason to think he could possibly rebuild, in three days, that magnificent structure which had been finished at immense expence, and was the labour of forty and six years. Though the blessed Jesus declined compliance with the request of the mighty and noble amongst the inhabitants of Jerusalem, he wrought several miracles in the presence of the common people, in order to confirm the doctrines he delivered, and prove the divinity of his mission. As there had not been any miracles wrought amongst them for a considerable time, though many were recorded in their sacred books, they beheld our blessed Lord with amazement and veneration; and numbers were satisfied that he was the long-promised Messiah, the desire of all nations, so often foretold by the ancient prophets. For wise reasons, however, he did not publicly discover that he was the Great Prophet, as he knew that the faith of numbers was yet but weak, and that many would desert his cause, when they found he was opposed by the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, and did not set up a worldly kingdom, as they thought the expected Messiah was to do. But the miracles wrought by the holy Jesus did not excite the wonder and astonishment of the common and illiterate class of the people alone. Nicodemus, a principal person among them, impartially reflecting of his wonderous works, astonishing in their nature, so demonstrative in their proof, so salutary in their effect, so happily adapted to confirm ation of his doctrines, and so perfectly agreeable to the attribute of the Deity, as well as the predictions of the ancient prophets, concerning the Messiah, "the Son of Righteousness, who was to rise with healing in his wings;" was perfectly assured that nothing less than Omnipotence itself could produce such wonders; and thence, like many others of his countrymen, concluded that Jesus was of a truth the Son, and sent of God, which last term is the meaning of the word Messiah. But scruples still arose in his mind, when on the other hand, he considered the obscurity of his birth, and the meanness of his appearance, so different from the exalted notions the people of the Jews always entertained concerning this powerful Prince, who was to erect his throne in the mighty city of Jerusalem, and subject to his dominion all the states and kingdoms of the earth. To obviate, therefore, these scruples, and solve these perplexing doubts, Nicodemus resolved on an interview with the blessed Jesus; but chusing to conceal his visit from the other members of the Sanhedrim, who were greatly averse to his person and doctrine, he chose the night, as most convenient for that purpose. His salutation of the mighty Redeemer of Israel wasthus: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." John iii. 2. Rabbi, I am sufficiently convinced that thou art immediately sent as a teacher from on high for nothing less than Power Divine could enable thee to perform the miracles which thou hast wrought in the presence of multitudes. But this salutation by no means implies, that Nicodemus thought Jesus the great promised Messiah, even the Redeemer of Israel; nor could he obtain that knowledge till it was revealed to him by the blessed Spirit of God. We may observe, that our Saviour, way ness. ing all formality and circumlocution, which | for the participation of heavenly blessedtend to no real profit, immediately preaches to this disguised Rabbi, the first great doctrine of Christianity, Regeneration; "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus, I declare unto thee, as a truth of the last importance; verily, verily, unless a man be regenerated in the spirit of his mind, have his will aud affections transferred from earthly to spiritual objects, he cannot see the kingdom of God, which is holy and spiritual in its nature and enjoyments. This was a mysterious system to the Rabbi, whose religious views extended no farther than rites and ceremonies, and were bounded by time and space; besides, he thought the very position of our Lord an absurdity in terms. "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Our Lord replies to this question, "Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The regeneration which I preach unto you, is not of a natural, but of a Spiritual nature; unless a man embraces the Christian religion and doctrines, whose initiating ordinance is baptism, he cannot be the subject of divine glory; which consists not in earthly splendour, and the gratification of the weaner passions, but in an exemption from whatever is earthly, sensual, and sinful, and the prosecution of whatever is heavenly, holy, and spiritual. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." Wonder not at my doctrine of regeneration, which is designed to inform you, that you derive no excellence from your boasted descent from Abraham; as such you are merely earthly, subject to sins and infirmities of every kind as well as to shew that you must undergo a spiritual mental regeneration, a renovation of the heart, which changes the whole man, and fits you This important work is likewise spiritual in its operation, unseen by mortal eyes, being wrought on the mind or heart of man, by the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, which changes his nature, and with respect to eternal things, makes him another, a new creature. "The wind 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 Spirit.” Notwithstanding this explanation of our blessed Jesus, Nicodemus was so prepossessed with partiality towards the Jews, who on account of their alliance to Abraham, though they were the people of God, entitled to heaven, and consequently, in no need of this new operation of the mind, called regeneration, that he again demanded, "How can these things be ?" The Divine Instructor then reproves his dulness and misapprehension of what he had so clearly explained, and propounded to him, especially as he was himself a teacher of the people, and one of the great council of the nation. "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" The doctrines I deliver are not fiction and mere surmise, but founded on eternal truth, immediately revealed from God, and consistent with the will of heaven. I am witness to the same, and therefore affirm that such testimony is sufficient to render them valid. But your prejudices still prevail, nor can your unbelief be conquered by all the arguments I can advance. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witress." If ye thus reject the first principles of the Christian religion, such as the necessity of regeneration, or the influence of the Spirit of God upon the heart of man, how will ye believe the sublimer truths I shall hereafter deliver concerning the kingdom of God, or state of the saints in glory? If I inform you of spiritual transactions in this lower world, and ye believe not, how can ye believe if I tell you of those things which relate solely to another, an heavenly state? But to confirm your belief in what I have delivered, know that my assured knowledge of these things is derived from the Father of Light, the God of Truth, by whom I am vested with gifts superior to any of the ancient prophets. earthly, but heavenly Jerusalem, previous to which he was to shed his blood, as by virtue of the same, all of every nation and kingdom, throughout the earth, might pass into the heavenly world, and there, ouce for ever, provided they relied on their merits, and confirmed their lives to the doctrines he preached, enjoy the summit of bliss, which, through his sufferings, was provided for them by God himself, to all eternity. This is the sum and substance of Christianity; this is the sum and substance of what our blessed Lord preached to Nico Jews; a sermon comprehending the whole of what is necessary to be taught; notwithstanding religion is at this day rent to pieces by sectaries, each of whom invent some new-fangled doctrine, suggested by ignorance or presumption, or both united. No man hath ascended the regions of immortality, but he who descended from thence, even, "The Son of Man," conse-demus, that great ruler and teacher of the quently no man but the Son of Man can with truth and 'certainty, reveal the immediate will of the Father, who is in heaven. Your great law-giver Moses, ascended not there, Mount Sinai was the summit of his elevation; whereas the Son of Man, who was in heaven, and came down from thence, with a divine commission to sinful mortals, had the most clear and convincing proofs of the will of his Almighty Father, penetrated into the designs of infinite wisdom and grace, and consequently must be higher than any other prophet, being in a peculiar sense, the prophet of the most high God. This divine Preacher, who speak as no man ever speak, likewise labours to eradicate the favourable principle of the Jews: I mean that of confirming all blessings, temporal and eternal, to their own nation and people, as well as to shew the vanity of their expecting the appearance of the Messiah, in pomp and magnificence. To effect this glorious design he lays open to the Rabbi, that it was agreeable both to the doctrines of Moses, as well as the will of God, that the Redeemer, in this state of mortality, should be exposed to poverty and distress of every kind; that his conquests were not to be of a temporal nature, over the hearts and wills of mankind: that his throne was not to be established in the That God Almighty, the Father, out of his unsupplicated, unmerited grace and mercy to the sinful race of men, sent his only-begotten Son to purchase eternal life through the effusion of his own blood, for all of every nation and kingdom throughout the earth, who should believe in him; that is, who should believe in the divinity of his mission, and the doctrines he taught ; and, in consequence of that faith conform, as far as the infirmities of sinful nature will "Only permit, to the rulers of his gospel. let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ." Condemnation justly passed on all transgressors of the law of God, (which are all mankind) can alone be averted according to the divine institution, the propriety of which it is the height of impiety and presumption to call in question, by faith in the blessed Jesus, such a "He that faith as we have just explained. believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." It appears from the future conduct of |