But your

such testimony is sufficient to render them valid. prejudices still prevail, nor cau 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 witness."

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 and 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 invested with gifts superior to any of the ancient prophets.

No man hath ascended the regions of immortality, and descended from thence, but "the Son of Man," consequently, 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 lawgiver 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 prophet, being in a peculiar sense, the prophet of the most high God, or Angel of the presence.

This divine preacher, who spake as no man ever spake, likewise labors to eradicate the favorite principle of the Jews: I mean, that of confining all blessings, temporal and eternal, to their own nation and people, as well as to show 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 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, for ever, provided they relièd on his merits, and conformed their lives to the doctrines he preached, enjoy that summit of bliss, which, through his suf

ferings, 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 Nicodemus, that great ruler and teacher of the Jews; a sermon comprehending the whole of what need be taught, notwithstanding religion is at this day rent to pieces by sectaries; each of whom invent some new-fangled doctrine, suggested by ignorance, presumption, or both united.

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, the efficacy of his atonement, and, in consequence of that faith, conform, as far as the infirmities of sinful nature will permit, to the rules of his Gospel. Only 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 faith as we have just explained. "He that 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 Nicodemus, that instead of supposing Jesus to be only "a teacher come from God," he was fully convinced that he was the "Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel:" for he afterwards constantly espoused his cause in the great council of the nation; and when his countrymen put him to an ignominious death, he, together with Joseph of Arimathea, conveyed him to burial, when all others had forsaken him.

The time of the passover at Jerusalem being expired, Jesus, together with his disciples, withdrew into the remote parts of Judea, where he continued a considerable time preaching the kingdom of God, and baptising the new converts.-John the Baptist being, also, at the same time baptising in the river Enon, a dispute arose between his disciples and certain Jews, concerning the preference of the baptism of Jesus.

Being unable to decide the point, they referred it to the opinion of John; on which the pious Baptist immediately declared, that he was only the harbinger of the great Messiah, who baptised not only with water, but with the Holy Spirit; adding, that his own ministry was on the decline, as the beauty of the morning star, the harbinger of the sun, decreases

2

CHRIST AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.

[Page 81.]

"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again, But whososever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst."-John iv. 13, 14.

when that fountain of light but dawns in the chambers of the east.

The Baptist likewise mentioned to his disciples and hearers many circumstances tending to prove the divinity of the mission of the Holy Jesus, and the important design of his incarnation. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

The Baptist having publicly preached the great doctrine of salvation through faith in Jesus, departed from the wilderness of Judea, where he had continued a considerable time, and went into Galilee, often repairing to the court of Herod, who esteemed, or affected to esteem, both his preaching and person. But John, being faithful in his ministry, could not fail to remonstrate on the injustice and impiety of a known practice of Herod, which was, his cohabiting with Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; and thereby incurring the displeasure of that ambitious woman, he was, at her instance, cast into prison, and there reserved for future destruction.

Whilst these things happened in Galilee, our blessed Lord continued preaching in the wilderness, whither great numbers resorted, attracted by curiosity, to see the miracles which fame reported he daily wrought. The success of his ministry, exciting the envy of the hypocritical tribe of Pharisees, our blessed Lord thought proper to retire into Galilee, in order to promote the design of his mission in those parts.

In the course of his journey, being weary with travelling in so warm a country, and excessively thirsty, he sat down in Samaria, by a celebrated well, given by the old patriarch Jacob to his son Joseph, while his disciples were gone to the city to procure provisions.

While the humble Jesus was sitting by a well-side, a woman, a native of the country, came with her pitcher to fetch water; and our Lord requested of her to give him to drink. The appearance of Jesus astonished the woman, because she knew him to be a Jew, and the Samaritans were held in the utmost contempt by those people, who, indeed, arrogated a preference to all nations upon earth. But though she knew him to be a Jew, she knew not that he was the Son of God, full of grace and truth, divested of human prejudices, and the very essence of humility, and every virtue.

As the design of his mission and incarnation was to promote the real happiness of mankind, he embraced every opportunity. of enforcing his salutary doctrines, and therefore, though his thirst was extreme, he delayed its gratification, in order to inform this woman, though of an infamous character, of the means by which she might obtain living water, or, in other words, eter