factory answer to your question. The bleffing you are invited to, is, the water of life, a beautiful metaphor of the privileges and bleffings of the gofpel; rich grace, abounding mercy, the peace of God, and joy in the Holy Ghoft, &c. trope is moft apt and fignificant.

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ift, What is so defirable as water to a perfon parched with thirft, and ready to faint with exceffive drought? If you should prefent the choiceft food to a perfon in this strait for water, you would be fo far from relieving, that you would heighten and aggravate his distress. Extreine thirst, is perhaps more sharp and painful than the most biting hunger or any other appetite; hence in fcripture the greatest bleffings are promised to the people of God, under the figure of water, fo by the mouth of If. chap. xli. 17, &c. "When the

poor and needy feek water, and there is none, "and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord "will hear them, I the God of Ifrael will not

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forfake them; I will open rivers in high places, "and fountains in the midft of the valleys, I "will make the wilderness a pool of water, and "the dry land fprings of water." And in chap. xxxv. 6, 7. " In the wilderness fhall waters break out, and ftreams in the defert, and the parched ground fhall become a pool, and the thirsty land fprings of water." Now as water is of fuch excellent ufe for allaying thirst, and fatisfying the defires of one that is parched with drought, fo it is a lively emblem of that fovereign mercy, which alone can fatisfy a finner who fees and feels his loft eftate and condition by fin. So long as perfons continue in their ftate of unregeneracy, and the God of this world ftill draws a veil over their hearts,

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hearts, notwithstanding their condition is really deplorable, they being in a damnable state; and they upon fome occafions may drop a word or two by way of acknowledgment that they are finners, &c.

Yet does not the evil of fin appear in that hideous fort, nor do they fee their danger in a manner fo alarming to their confciences, or terrifying to their fouls, as when by the agency of the blessed fpirit, their fouls are brought to a sense of feeling, their ears unftopped to hear the thunder from Sinai, and their eyes are opened to fee the damning nature of fin, the purity and perfection of the law of God, together with their own depraved nature, and the defperate wickednefs of the heart. This is a fight will make the ftouteft rebel tremble, and the moft ftubborn finner that ever the fun beheld will be unable to look up under fuch a discovery.

While a finner lies under the apparent frowns of his offended maker, and the bitter accufings of a guilty confcience, his ftate feems altogether infupportable, he groans under what he feels, but is ready to faint under what he fears; it is in fuch cafe as this that the words of the wife man are experienced, the spirit of a man will fustain bis infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear, Prov. xviii. 14.

David feems to have felt fomewhat of the fcorching nature of the Almighty's anger, when he fays, day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer, Pf. xxxii. 4. And Job in the bitterness of his complaint fays, the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poifon whereof drinketh up my spirit,

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Job vi. 4. Under fuch inward breakings of fpirit, and grievous woundings of heart as these, what a perfect resemblance there is to a person whose spirit fainteth, and whofe tongue cleaveth to the roof of his mouth with extreme thirst fave that the former is more excruciating and diftressful, as the pain felt, and evil feared, are more interefting and important than in the latter. And as in the cafe of the latter, nothing is fo defirable as water, fo in the former, nothing can give ease or fatisfy, but that mercy, which is fignified thereby. It is impoffible to enrich that foul with all the wealth of India that is reduced to a sense of its own poverty by the fpirit of God; the earneft cry, and very breathing of fuch a foul is, O fatisfy me with thy mercy, and that foon, Pf. XC. 14. Would you propofe to exalt him to honour, he has no inclination, feeing that he is had in difgrace before that God, whom now to be reconciled to, he would be content to be any thing, or suffer any thing; his choice is now rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than enjoy the pleafures of fin, and like Mofes, he esteems the reproach of Chrift greater riches, than the treafures of Egypt, Heb. xi. 26. Nothing but Chrift can fatisfy a person in this condition, for fays he, "What is all the world to me, feeing it cannot re"lieve the diftreffes of my wounded confcience, nor fupply me with any medicine that may be a cordial to my diseased foul; if the whole world "was in my own poffeffion, and it were poffible "I could convert it to folid gold, riches fo im"menfe would be to me as nothing, while my "foul is racked with the bitter remembrance of my fins, and I ficken every moment under the

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"terrible apprehenfions of the wrath of my of"fended maker." Now my text contains an invitation to that mercy fuch a finner wants under the metaphor of water, and fays, whofoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.

2d, What is there among all the bleffings of common life of fuch univerfal utility as water? This is particularly ufeful for cleanfing and purifying our cloaths, veffels, &c. And very fitly sets forth unto us the neceflity of spiritual water, if I may so say, to cleanfe and purify our fouls from their native defilement and pollution.

The fpirit of God in his fanctifying influences upon the hearts of God's people, is compared to water, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean, &c. Water can make clean, and take the spots out of our fullied garments, but the spirit of God is of more excellent ufe, in taking away from us the filthy rags of our own righteoufnefs, and preparing and putting on us through faith in Jefus, a robe perfectly pure and fpotlefs, and hereby rendering a poor finner lothfome in himself, altogether comely in the eyes of unfpotted purity, through the comeliness of this robe put upon him.

Water is of excellent ufe for bathing, and wafhing away the filth of the flesh, &c. but the fpirit of God reprefented hereby, cleanses the corrupt nature, and purifies the foul defiled by fin; hence believers are exhorted through the fpirit, to mortify the deeds of the body, Rom. viii. 13. By the gracious operations of the fpirit, the heart is weaned from the love of the world, convinced of the vanity, and emptinefs of all created things; is led to fee the amiableness of Jefus,

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and the excellency of his mediatorial undertaking for poor finners. By the workings of the spirit, man's pride is humbled, the glory of the Redeemer is exalted, earth finks and heaven together with the things of God rife higher and higher in the esteem of the believer.

John faw in his vifion a river clear as cryftal, proceeding from the throne of God, and the lamb; this river therefore represented the holy fpirit, the third perfon in the adorable trinity, who proceeds from the father, and the fon, and who together with the father and the fon, is one God in the adorable unity. This river was a pure river, and therefore figured out the fpirit of God who is a holy fpirit in his own nature, and carries on a holy work in the hearts of believers, and so purifies their fouls by his gracious influences.

3d, The water in my text is, by way of pe-culiar eminence called the water of life, and what can better fet forth unto us the favour of God: concerning which it is faid in the book of Pfalms, life is enjoyed therein, Pf. xxx. 5. That rich grace, that abundant mercy, which the gospel discovers, and holds forth to the fons of men, and which is appropriated by the believer, is the porch that leads into the palace of the king of kings, the commencement of eternal felicity, and the gracious dawning of eternal day in the foul. is the water Jefus gives, which whosoever drinks, fball thirst no more, but it shall be in him a well of water, Springing up into everlasting life, John iv. 13, 14. He who drinks of this water, finds his foul quickened, and raifed up from a death in trefpaffes and fins, to newness of life; finds the troubles of his heart affuaged, his foul healed,

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