Here we may pause, and ponder deeply. Jesus Christ came down from heaven, was God in heaven, before He took upon Him our flesh: He was in heaven, "as touching His Godhead," while on earth as man; after His resurrection, He ascended again into heaven, where He now sitteth upon His throne of mercy, interceding and pleading for us; and there He will sit till He cometh to judge the world; and then He will reign in the midst of His redeemed people and His holy angels, as "the Lamb for ever and ever:" let us now therefore adore and worship Him, Him “which is, and which was, and which is to come" (Rev. i. 8.); let us now give Him "glory and honour and blessing:" above all, let us, as new creatures, as "born again of an incorruptible seed,” (1 Pet. i. 23.) as" renewed in the spirit of our minds, and as putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," (Eph. iv. 23, 24.) let us thus glorify His name. We were brought to God in infancy; but baptism in itself cannot save us : it is a gracious privilege, it is full of blessing; we then became "members of Christ, children of God, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven;" but the blessing to us will depend, after all, upon the consequences. Does the Spirit work within us, manifestly though unseen; manifest in the fruit, in the disposition and character, though unseen in His operation? Do we pray for Him, and strive with Him? Do we live in Him and walk in Him? Let us not, as too many do, be thinking and talking of the new birth, as a mere

matter of feeling or a mere sudden change: undoubtedly we must feel, undoubtedly a sinner may be suddenly convinced and converted from the error of his way; may be, and often is: yet the life and conduct must be our testimony: this is the rule, let us always be governed by it; "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.)

LECTURE IX.

Our Lord proceeds in ver. 14. to explain to Nicodemus the great object for which He came into the world; and this discourse demands our very serious and earnest attention; for we find, in these few words, the nature, principles, and consequences of the gospel most clearly and strikingly laid down. CHAP. III. 14.

14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernes, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, on the cross: 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

We read, in Numbers xxi. that God punished the disobedient Israelites by sending fiery or venomous serpents, whose bite occasioned death. Moses was commanded to make the image of a serpent in brass, and put it on a pole, that the people, who looked upon it in

faith, might be healed of their wounds and this was a type, or sign, of Christ being lifted up on the cross for all mankind, who would look to Him in faith, for the healing of the wounds which sin has made. "Look to me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.”Isaiah 45. 22As the brazen serpent was the means, under God, of preserving the bodily life of all who believed and looked to it, so Christ is the means of eternal life to all who believe and look to Him, as dying for their sins upon the cross; in entire dependence on His mercy and obedience to His will: Jesus here signifies what death he would die, though Nicodemus could not then understand it. The 16th verse informs us how so great and wonderful a sacrifice came to be made it was entirely owing to the sovereign goodness of God, to His pure love and compassion for lost sinners. 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 14.9. begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world Luke 9. 56. to condemn the world, to execute vengeance, as He justly might have done, but that the world through him might be saved.

Mark the language here: God gave His only begotten Son, God sent His son; then He had a Son, to give and to send this shews the being of Christ, the divine being, before

Rom. 5. 8.

He came into the world; shews what is called the pre-existence of Christ.

18. He that believeth on him is not conCh. 5. 24. demned, shall escape condemnation; but he that believeth not is condemned already, by his own conduct, in his own conscience, by the very act of refusing the only Saviour, because he hath not believed in the name, in the mercy and grace, of the only begotten Son of God. 19. And this is the condemnation, the matter and reason for it, that light is come into the world, the light of truth and salvation, and men loved darkness, the darkness of error Isaiah, 5. 20. and death, rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Here we see the great cause of unbelief and refusal of the gospel: the evil is not in the head, but the heart; it is not for want of understanding, but for want of willingness: men love their evil passions and their evil habits, and will not forsake them; and therefore will not embrace that gospel, which forbids and condemns them: they will not turn and be saved; this is their condemnation; God grant that it be not ours; that we may not be so in love with sin, as to refuse and reject the Saviour of sinners. Let us read two more verses, which again state the matter very clearly:

20. For every one that doeth evil hateth

the light, neither cometh to the light, lest Eph. 5. 13. his deeds should be reproved. 21. But he that doeth truth, that liveth and desireth to live uprightly, according to the truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. He has nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to conceal; he is ready and glad to shew, that he lives by faith in God, by the Spirit of God, and according to His holy will.

So ends the divine discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus; may we take it to ourselves, and turn it to a godly and vital account! When we seriously consider the great end and object of Christ's coming into the world, His own amazing love, and our deep, unspeakable, everlasting interest in it, how should it fill our minds, how should it dwell in our affections! Anxious, resolved, determined should we be, whereever we are, whatever we do, to prove our fellowship with Christ, to secure "the innumerable benefits which by His precious blood-shedding He hath obtained to us," to "make our calling and election sure." (2 Pet. i. 10.) Did we know of an Israelite, when mortally bitten, slighting the proffered mercy, despising the remedy, refusing to look upon the lifted serpent, what should we say ? We should say, that he deserved to die. Then what shall we say of those sinners, who reject the love of their Redeemer ?