JEST

ESUS anfwered and faid unto her, If thou knewest the Gift of God, and who it is that faith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldeft have afked of him, and he would have given thee living Water, John iv. 10.

JESUS CHRIST is the Gift of God, and the Source of all other Gifts. Such as this Samaritan Woman is, fuch is every Sinner, before the firft Ray of divine Light has fhone in his Heart. So far is the from being able to deferve it, defire it, or ask for it, that fhe rejects it, and has not the leaft Sufpicion imaginable, that he has any want of it. To be admonished of our Ignorance fignifies but very little, if God do not perform the reft. - To know JESUS CHRIST, and the Neceffity of his Grace, is the first Step towards Converfion. - His Grace is living Water, which quenches our Thirst after worldly Riches and Pleasures. Who would not inceffantly defire and long to drink thereof? Caufe us, O LORD, to know how to drink of this Water, on all Occasions, that we may esteem, defire it, and pray for it.

JBSUs, the Gift divine I know,
The Gift divine I ask of Thee,

The living Water, now bestow

Thy Spirit and thyfelf on me, Thou, Lord of Life, the Fountain art, O could I find Thee in my Heart.

WE

HEN Jefus faw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long Time in that Cafe, he faith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? John v. 6.

The Look which CHRIST cafts upon this Paralytic, is an Emblem of that internal Look of Mercy, which he cafts upon a Sinner, while he is grovelling upon the Earth through the Corruption of his Heart, and depressed under the Weight of his Sins. In vain would the Sinner endeavour to conceal from him the Wounds and Ulcers of his Heart: CHRIST knows them better than he himself does. When the Body is out of Order, the Will has no Need of a Physician to dispose it to defire Health, because it is not that which is indifpofed, unless it be perhaps in defiring Health either too eagerly, or to a bad Purpose. But in the Dileafe of the Soul it is the Will itself which is indifpofed, and its greatest Illnefs is that it loves its Difeafe, and hates and avoids Health. We cannot therefore be made whole, and cured of our Sins, unless we be willing, but it is God who produces in us both the Will and the Effect: He caufes us to defire that which he defigns to give." An impotent Defire I feel

At Times to be made whole; But vain the Help of Man, to heal My long distemper'd Soul:

The Angel God muft from the Skies
Come down to cure my Pain;
Come, Saviour, now, and bid me rise,
And never fin again.

AND Jefus faid unto them, I am the Bread of Life, John vi.

35:

There is but one Life, which deferves this Name, and that is the Life which we have in JESUS CHRIST, and of which he is himself the Principle and the Food to all Eternity. We muft of Neceffity be incorporated into this Bread, in order to receive Life from it; and it is by Means of a lively Faith, that we approach CHRIST, that we enter, as it were, and are chang'd into him, that we may become a Part of this living Bread. O eternal Bread! who cameft to us by Means of the Incarnation: Eternal Truth! which art alone the End of our Defires, and the only Bread which can fatisfy my Soul, thou filleft me with Hope, by difcovering Thyfelf fo clearly, to Perfons fo unworthy as thefe here before us were. LORD, have Mercy upon my dying Soul, and feed me with this Bread of eternal Life continually.

Thou art the Bread of Life,

That Meat which fhall remain, Be it our only Care and Strife, Thy bleffed Self to gain :

Give, Lord, and always give

Th' immortalizing Food,
And strengthen us, by Grace, to live
The glorious Life of God..

AND this is the Father's Will which hath fent me, that of all which he hath given me, I fhould lofe nothing, but should raife it up again at the laft Day, John vi. 39..

Let us with Confidence believe that we are of the Number of those whom the Father hath given to the Son, and let this Con-fidence, which is a Part of Chriftian Hope, caufe us to ferve God with Courage, and with the Joy of Children, who expect and wait for an Inheritance in Heaven. We are in the Hands of Chrift as a Gift, or a Truft, which God has depofited therein; and have nothing to fear, except from our own Will: But, Lord, art not Thou the abfolute Mafter thereof? Grant, O Jefus, that I may have no other Will, but only to render myself conformable to that of thy Father.

Let us adore the eternal Word,

'Tis he our Souls has fed,

Thou art our living Stream, O Lord,
And Thou th' immortal Bread.

Daily our mortal Flesh decays,'

But CHRIST Our Life fhall come, His unrefifted Pow'r shall raise

Our Bodies from the Tomb.

YE fhall feek me, and fhall not find me: and where I am thither ye cannot come, John vii. 34.

It is abfolutely neceffary to feek God in this Life by a true Converfion, in order to find him at the Time of Death. What will he, who finds not Jefus Chrift, at that Hour find, except his own Condemnation, Despair, and eternal Mifery! A terrible Judgement this upon the Wicked, whom God leaves in their Infidelity. Bleffed be thy Name, O Jefus, who haft fhewed us Mercy in giving us Faith. Grant, Lord, that this Faith, which thou haft planted in my Heart, may continually feek Thee and find Thee; raise my Heart up to Thee, unite it to thy Spirit, and at last conduct me where Thou art.

The great JEHOVAH! who fhall dare
With him to tempt unequal War?
What Heart of Steel shall dare t' oppofe,
And league among his harden'd Foes?
See, from the Turrets of the Skies,
Tall Gberubs fink, no more to rife,

And fhew their rank on thrones of light,
By heavier Chains and darker Night.
Great God! and fhall this Soul of mine
Prefume to challenge Wrath divine ?
Trembling I feek thy Mercy-feat,
And lay my Weapons at thy Feat.