Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/225

Rh indifferently, but as the living Word of ; particularly should we regard, with especial reverence, any words which fell from our lips, and see that we consider, not what they may mean, but what is their obvious untortured meaning. We would not therefore, as some have done, argue that it is improbable that ", discoursing with a carnal Jew, would lay so much weight upon the outward sign;" (for this teaching was not for Nicodemus only, but for His Church; and of all our teaching we can know this only, that it would be far different and far deeper than what we should have expected, and that it would baffle all our rules and measures;) nor again would we say with Calvin, and Grotius, and the Socinians that the "water" may be a mere metaphor, a mere emblem of the Spirit, and so that being "born again of water and the Spirit," means nothing more than "being born of the Spirit" without water. For Hooker