men who lay hold of the mercy; "That whoever believeth in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life." And by this charitable practice, our church endeavours to bring all her people to a god-like temper of charity and good-will for all who bear the image of God; and by this practice she endeavours to support the spirits of dejected penitents, who will have no reason to despair, since the greatest sinners are in a capacity of salvation. We are obliged, indeed, to say, in a capacity to be saved; for the truth is, all men are not saved, that might be saved, if it were not for their own wilful blindness, resisting the Love and the Counsel of God for their good. Many will not hear and be made sensible of the danger they are in; others will not forsake their sins for any consideration whatever ; and many even despise the very offers of pardon and grace. In all these cases the Saviour of the world declares, that it is men's own fault if they are not saved. "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." John v. 40. If people, when salvation is offered to them, will, notwithstanding, unworthily abuse the mercy; if men, to whom God has manifested himself, will not retain God in their knowledge; if those that have been enlightened, and have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; if they are again entangled therein, and are finally lost; this is not for want of means to be saved, but they will not be saved; they will not seriously attend to the word preached; they will not believe, at least, they will not consider, the importance of a judgment to come; nor will they submit to the conditions of attaining eternal happiness. But then, it must not be said,—that God did not love them; that God did not desire their welfare; who has declared his Son to be the Saviour, not of some few only, but of the whole world. And therefore, the account of his birth, is said by the Angels, to be tidings of great joy to all people; i. e. all that can be prevailed upon, by the goodness of God, by the love of Christ, by the labours of his Ministers, to receive him for their Lord and Saviour. And now we come, in the third and last particular, to consider, What obligations this love of God lays upon Christians. For certainly, God did not design that all this love should be lost upon us. He expects some return, some fruits of his Son's humiliations, and labours, and sufferings. Shall I put you in mind how God, by the prophet Isaiah, (ch. v.) reasoned with the people of Israel? "Judge," saith he, "I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard." The case was so plain, that he refers it to themselves; "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Now the punishment of this ingratitude, this unfruitfulness, followeth: "I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, trodden down, laid waste." And tion by the second. And, therefore so it came to pass. You can any of no man can now perish, but by you apply this, as well as I. To reason of his own unbelief; because proceed, therefore; The Love of he will not believe in the Son of God, in sending his Son into the God, nor in what God hath said world, obliges us to three things concerning him; for if he doeth that, especially. First, to love the Father, he hath God's word for it that he who sent his Son that we might live shall not perish, as Adam had it, that through him. Secondly, to love our he should die if he ate of the forLord Jesus Christ, who condescended bidden fruit. There is only this to come down to save us. And difference between them, that God thirdly, to love all mankind, for spake to Adam by way of threatenwhose sakes, as well as for ours, he ing, he speaks to us by way of procame down from Heaven.-WILSON. mise; but both are equally the word Ye yourselves, bear me witness that of God; and we have the same I said, I am not the Christ, but that ground to believe what he hath proI am sent before him. See Commen-mised to us in Christ, as Adam had tary on Luke III. 16, in § CLXI. to believe what he had threatened He that believeth on the Son hath to him; or rather, if possible, more; everlasting life, and he that believeth forasmuch as the threatening was not the Son shall not see life, but the only by the word spoken, the prowrath of God abideth on him.-Al- mise is by the Word incarnate: though all men are condemned for "The Word was made flesh and the unbelief of their first parents, dwelt among us," John i. 14, in our yet our most merciful Creator hath own nature, united to his Divine so ordered it, that none suffer, but person. And if we do but rightly for their own personal unbelief; the believe in this word, we shall as cersentence being never executed, but tainly be saved by him, as we were only upon those who are guilty of it condemned by our unbelief in the themselves, in their own proper per- first man.-Beveridge. sons, as well as in their common head for the same day on which the first Adam fell by his not believing the word of God, God was pleased to raise up another Adam, his only begotten Son, his own eternal Word, "that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. So that as unbelief was the occasion of our fall and destruction in the first Adam, faith is now made the condition of our rise and salva HYMN. Not to condemn the sons of men, Did Christ the Son of God appear; He lov'd the race of men so well, Of sin, and save our souls from hell. Sinners believe the Saviour's word, Trust in his mighty name and live; A thousand joys his lips afford, His hands a thousand blessings give. § CCXL. CHAP. IV. 1—26. Christ talketh with a woman of Samaria, and revealeth himself unto her. WHEN therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and "baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a wo man of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee "living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir," I perceive that thou art a prophet. i 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in* Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 'when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship "ye know not what we know what we worship for "salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in • spirit" and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, 'he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, 'I that speak unto thee am he. a ch. iii. 22. 26.-b Gen. xxxiii. 19; & xlviii. 22. Josh. xxiv. 32.-c 2 Kings xvii. 24. Luke ix. 52, 53. Acts x. 28.-d Is. xii. 3; & xliv. 3. Jer. ii, 13. Zech. xiii. 1; & xiv. 8.-e ch. vi. 35. 58.-ƒ ch. vii 38.-g See ch. vi. 34; & xvii. 2, 3. Rom. vi. 23. 1 John v. 20-h Luke vii. 16; & xxiv 19. th. vi. 14; & vii 40.—i Judg. ix. 7. - Deut. xii. 5, 11. 1 Kin. ix. 3 2 Chron. vii. 12 --/ Mal. i. II. 1 Tim. ii. 8.-m 2 Kings xvii. 29.—n Is. ii. 3. Luke xxiv. 47. Rom ix. 4, 5.-6 Phil. iii. 3.-peh. i. 17.-92 Cor iii. 17.-rver 29, 39.-sch. ix. 57. Mat. xxvi. 63, 64. Mark xiv. 61, 62. READER.-Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall Now give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.-The that not a little measure to sprinkle spirit is compared to water, and or bedew, but to baptize the faithful in, Mat. iii. 11. Acts i. 5; and that not in a font or vessel which grows less and less, but in a springing or living river, John vii. 39. water, besides its purifying property, is of a spreading nature: it hath no bounds nor limits to itself, as firm and solid bodies have, but receives its restraint by the vessel or continent which holds it: so the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened in himself, but only by the narrow hearts of men into which he comes. "Ye are not straitened," saith the Apostle, "in us;" that is, in that ministry of grace and dispensation of the Spirit which is committed to us, "but in your own bowels," which are not in any proportion enlarged unto that abundance and fulness of heavenly grace, which, in the gospel of salvation, is offered unto you. Spring water is a growing and multiplying thing; which is the reason why rivers which rise from narrow fountains, have yet, by reason of a constant and regular supply, a great breadth in remote channels, because the water lives: whereas in pits and torrents it groweth less and less: so the graces of the Spirit are living and springing things; the longer they continue, the larger they grow, like the waters of the Sanctuary, Ezek. xxxvi. 25; and the reason is, because they come from a fountain which is all life, John iv. 10; xiv. 6. Col. iii. 4. Again, as water multiplies in itself, so, by insinuation and mollification, it hath a fructifying virtue in other things. Fruitful trees are planted by the water's side; so the Spirit, searching and mollifying the heart, maketh it fruitful in holy obedience, Ezek. xi. 19, 20. Water is very strong in its own stream; we see what mighty engines it moveth, what huge vessels it rolleth like a ball, and what walls and bulwarks it overthrows: SO the Spirit of God is able to beat down all strong holds which the wit of man, or the malice of Satan can erect against the Church. And this strength of water serves to carry it as high as its own spring and level: so the Spirit, will never cease to raise the hearts of his people, till it carries them to their fountain and springhead in heaven.-BP. REYNOLDS. God is a Spirit.-Seeing all the happiness that mankind is capable of, consisteth in the enjoyment of that supreme and all-glorious Being whom we call God; and seeing we can never enjoy him unless we first serve him, nor serve him, unless we first know him; hence it necessarily follows, that as ever we desire to be truly happy, our first and great care must be to know God, not only so as to acknowledge him to be, but so as to have à due sense, and right and clear apprehensions of him, and of those infinite perfections that are concentered in him: for it is only such a knowledge of God as this, that will incline our affections to him, and put us upon constant and sincere endeavours so to serve him here, that we may enjoy him for ever. But this we can never attain to without consulting those Divine oracles, wherein this Almighty Being hath been pleased to make known himself, and to discover his perfections to us. I shall, therefore, endeavour, at this time, to show what kind of thoughts, and conceptions we ought to frame in our minds concerning the Most High God, and what influence they will have upon our lives and actions. But where shall I begin to speak of him who had no beginning at all, and will have no end? And what words can I take upon myself whereby to express his glory, who infinitely surpasseth all expressions whatsover? All expressions, did I say? yea, and conceptions too: for his nature is so pure, his goodness so great, his knowledge so transcendent, his power so boundless, his wisdom, justice, and mercy so mysterious, his glory so incomprehensible, and all his perfections so high, so infinitely high, that our highest conceptions of him are still infinitely below him. And, therefore, when he would make known himself to us in his Holy Scriptures, he is pleased to condescend to our capacities, so as to fit |