truths, which, without the imparted light of revelation, would for ever have remained in impenetrable darkness. The unassisted powers of natural reason might possibly have discovered that the soul of man was in a disordered state. And at such a discovery some few of the wisest among the heathens actually arrived. But the nature, the seat, the extent of the disorder, the necessity, the magnitude, the means of a recovery, were points beyond the reach of human penetration; points, to the knowledge of which we should never have attained, had not God, "who was rich in mercy, of his great love, wherewith he loved us," disclosed them to us in his word. Nor can the importance of such a disclosure be sufficiently appreciated. Unaccompanied by such a disclosure, all the stupendous blessings of the gospel would have been offered to us in vain. Ignorant of the lost and ruined condition of our soul; ignorant of that entire renovation, which the heart must undergo, we should never have embraced, we should utterly have despised the remedy provided. Let us then praise the Lord for his goodness in having fully revealed to us our real state. Let us with gratitude receive the spiritual details of our natural depravity, as so many proofs of the paternal love and of the tender solicitude of Him, who "desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live." To deny the doctrine of original corruption is not only to reject the testimony of the Almighty, to refuse "to set to our seal that God is true;" but to despise the expressions of his love and mercy; to betray the foulest ingratitude, no less than the most daring pride and the most impious presumption.

2. But while we thankfully receive, let us also profitably use the information vouchsafed. To this end let us wisely appropriate it. The truths of Scripture, unless faithfully applied and brought home to our own hearts and circumstances, will conduce little to our improveDoes the text set before us the picture of mankind in general? Let us remember that it sets before us our picture in particular. "Is the heart of the sons of men full of evil?" Such is our heart. Such is the radical, the total, the innate corruption of our souls. Born

ment.

of the flesh we are flesh. Nor let us stop even at this conclusion. Let us seek to acquire a 'deep, an experimental conviction of the truth. Let us compare our hearts with the word of God. While we read with attention the statement there delivered of man's depravity let us observe whether we do not find a corresponding depravity within our own bosoms: whether we do not find, with respect to spiritual things, that blindness in the understanding; that perverseness in the will; that ungovernableness in the affections; that impurity in the imagination; that vanity in the mind; above all, that alienation of the heart from God, which the Scriptures designate as characteristic of fallen man. Let us examine ourselves in one single instance. If our hearts be not alienated from God, communion with him will be our chief delight: prayer and praise will be the natural language of our souls. But does this on experience prove to be the case? On the contrary, what indisposition do we not feel to such holy exercises? What backwardness in commencing them? What dulness and formality in performing them? How difficult, nay how impossible do we find it, with all our watchfulness, with all the force which we are able to apply, to maintain for the shortest period, and even on the most solemn occasions, an undivided attention, a spiritual frame of mind. Can we then doubt of the native enmity of our hearts to God? The very necessity of applying force to the mind, shews what is its inherent tendency; in what direction the current, if not opposed, would naturally flow.

Nor let us rest satisfied with this conviction. Let our experience of the violence and of the inveteracy of the malady, lead us earnestly to seek for help from Him who alone can heal our disordered souls. This is the great improvement which we are required to make of the information vouchsafed. To bring us humbly unto God for the renovation of our corrupt nature; this is the great practical end, which the conviction of our natural corruption is intended to promote. To attempt this important work in our own strength, or by means of our own devising, will be a presumptuous and an unsuccessful attempt. With as much facility may we create a world as create our own hearts anew. The prepara

ness.

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tions of the heart of man are from the Lord." He who alone searcheth the heart, alone can renew it unto holiTo him then let us apply for the blessing. We have the strongest assurances that our application shall not be in vain. Hath he not given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature?"+ The promise of the new heart is the leading promise of the new covenant. "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Encouraged by these gracious promises, let us pray with the penitents of old, "Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned." Let us cry out with the psalmist, "Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us." Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, and in the language of our church intreat the Lord, who is the giver of all good things, to "write his laws in our hearts; to create and make in us new and contrite hearts; to grant that we, being regenerated and made his children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with the Father, and the same spirit, ever one God world without end." Amen.

SERMON V.

ON THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.

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 wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

TRUE charity is distinguished by a tender the souls, as well as for the bodies of men.

* Prov. xvi. 1. + 2 Peter i. 4.

John iv. 10.

concern for Seeing by

Jer. xxxi. 33. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.

faith the end of the ungodly, it confines not its exertions in their favour to the attainment of transitory comforts; it seeks to promote their permanent and everlasting felicity. Such is the charity which characterizes the real Christian. Acting under the influence of this heavenly principle, he is continually looking around him for opportunities of usefulness. In all his transactions, in all his intercourse with others, he seldom loses sight of their most important interests. And in a judicious improvement of common occurrences into occasions of spiritual instruction, no inconsiderable portion of his wisdom consists.

Of this, as of every other exercise of Christian charity, the life of our blessed Saviour exhibits the brightest pattern. The same compassionate love for perishing sinners, which brought him down from Heaven, continued preeminently to display itself during his residence on earth. While he went about, healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people," did he forget their disordered souls? No: these were the objects of his unceasing and tenderest solicitude. It was the spiritual ignorance of his hearers which excited his compassion. It was their spiritual obduracy which moved his grief. It was their spiritual improvement to which his attention was ever alive, and to which all his discourses were uniformly directed. We meet with a striking instance to this effect in the text, and in the passage connected with it.

In the course of his ministry, our Lord coming to Sychar, a city of Samaria, sat down by the side of a well. "There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it, that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” Jesus, without noticing the impropriety of her conduct, mildly answered in the words of my text: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him. and he would have given thee living water."

This reply was clearly dictated by a regard to her spiritual good. Its direct tendency was to rouse her attention to the concerns of her soul, and to an improvement of the glorious opportunity now vouchsafed to her. Had she been sensible of the distinguishing privilege which at

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this moment she enjoyed; had she been apprised of the power and grace of the person with whom she was conversing; had she felt her own need of that inestimable blessing, which he was both able and willing to bestow upon her; far from wasting the precious moments, she would have been earnestly praying to him for an interest in his favour, and for a supply of her wants. Nor would her prayers have been ineffectual. In answer to her entreaties he would have given to her living water. Living water was the blessing of which she stood most in need the gift which he was ready to bestow on her.

What then is living water? Though the expression be evidently figurative, yet we have no difficulty in ascertaining its true meaning. That by living water the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are signified, we have direct testimony from a subsequent passage in this gospel. For Christ having affirmed, "he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" it is expressly added by the Evangelist, but this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive."*

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It was the usual practice of our Lord, not only to inculcate and explain divine truths by allusions to sensible and familiar objects, but also to borrow his illustrations from the particular circumstances or conversation in which he happened to be engaged. Thus on the present occasion his discourse with the woman of Samaria naturally led him to speak of the Holy Spirit under the image of water. Nor could any image have been selected more significant or proper. The purifying, refreshing, and fertilizing qualities of water afford very apt and striking emblems of the sanctifying operations of the Spirit of God. And the frequent use, which the Prophets had made of this illustration, stamps our Lord's adoption of it with a peculiar propriety. We find Zechariah and Isaiah thus predicting the copious effusion of the Spirit under the gospel. "It shall be in that day, that living water shall go out of Jerusalem. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring."+

*John vii. 38, 39. † Zech. xiv. 8. Isaiah xliv. 3.