And this is not the only instance of the use of such phraseology: for, when arguing with the Sadducees about the raising of the dead, He says of the just, that they are “_the children of God_;”—and then, carrying on the idea, He calls them, “_the children of the resurrection_.” (Luke xx. 36.) To be “born of water,” then, is to be baptized with water; and this, together with being “born of the Spirit,” Christ declares to be necessary to an entrance into “the kingdom of God.” By “the Kingdom of God” is here meant the Visible Church of Christ upon earth; the members of which are therein prepared for the state of eternal glory in Heaven. This shows us of what characters Christ designed His Visible Church to consist; namely, of those who are born of the Spirit, and baptized with water. And thus the true Church of Christ may well be described as ‘_A Congregation of faithful men_, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s Ordinance.’ (Article XIX. of the Church of England.) Christ would have His Church a Visible Body, that it might be “The Pillar and Ground of the truth;”—to maintain the truth and to hold it forth to the world. As there had been before His coming, so it was meet that there should continue to be, an associated and authorized Body of God’s Worshippers and Witnesses, to which additions might from time to time be made of “such as should be saved,” (Acts ii. 47.), and by which Christ’s religion might be spread abroad and propagated. Into this Body ‘faithful men,’ or those who are “born again,” are incorporated by baptism. And it is of this spiritual kingdom, which “is not of this world,” that Christ speaks in the verse we are now considering. The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, has sometimes in Scripture a more extensive signification, and includes both good and bad,—the true Israel and those “which say they are Jews and are not.” Since man cannot know the heart of his fellow-man, he must accept his profession, where it is not contradicted by plain and palpable evidence: and hence it comes to pass, that ‘in the Visible Church the evil will be mingled with the good.’ (Article XXVI.) But Christ, the Great Head of the Church, does not acknowledge the evil as belonging to Him, or as having any right to a place in His Church or kingdom. Where has He ever prescribed or demanded or allowed _a merely external profession and service_? What did He say to those who were satisfied with this? “_Ye hypocrites_, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me!” (Matt. xv. 7, 8.) And if this spiritual service, this service of the heart, was required of _the Jews_, and evidently symbolized by their distinguishing Ordinance of circumcision, and if _they_ were branded by the Lord as “hypocrites” who