a fountain opened to the houfe of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleannefs." The fulness of Chrift is not the fulness of a veffel, but of a fountain that cafts forth its waters, and yet hath still enough.--Confider,

(3.) That it belongs to him, and to him alone, to distribute that fulness: John v. 22. « For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son." He is the great steward of the fulness of God. The keys hang at his girdle. Never any foul was filled, but whom he filled. The Father directs the hungry foul to his Son: Matth. xvii. 5. "This," fays he, "is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed : Hear ye him." The Spirit points you to Chrift. And Chrift is faying to you, what Jofeph faid to his father and brethren Gen. xlv. 9.-11. "Hafte : you, and go up to my father, and fay unto him, Thus faith thy fon Jofeph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt; come down unto me, tarry not. And thou fhalt dwell in the land of Gofhen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee, (for yet there are five years of famine), left thou, and thy household, and all that thou haft, come to poverty."--Consider,

(4.) That you have his word for it, that he will. do it: If. lv. 1. "Ho every one that thirfteth, ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price." John, vi. 37. "All that the Father hath given me, fhall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me, I will in nowife caft out." And you have the teftimony of them who have gone before you: Luke, i. 52. 53. "He has exalted them of low degree.

degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things."

Here, however, there may be propofed this OBJ +CTION. Is it poffible for a perfon to find satiffaction in fuch a courfe, turning his back on the world and its lufts? Anfwer, Come and fee. The faints have found, and do find fatisfaction, and this fuch as has made them despise the smiles and frowns of the world: Pfal. iv. 7. "Thou haft put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased: Heb. xi. 24. 25. 26. “By faith Mofes, when he was come to years, refused to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; choofing rather to fuffer afflictions with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleafures of fin for a feafon. Efteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the trea- . fures of Egypt: For he had refpect unto the recompence of reward." Is there any perfection or fweetness in the creature but what comes from God? does not the whole creation fhine with borrowed light? If fo, then God must be more fweet, infinitely more fweet, than all the creatures, even if combined together. And does not the natural conftitution of the foul, call for the enjoyment of an infinite good? It must then be the greatest reality.

Still, however, fome may press this OBJECTION. But will he fill me who am full of fin? Anf. Christ fills freely, as freely as the rain falls, and the fun fhines, without hire, and his fulness will wear out the fulness of fin: Ifa. i. 18. "Come now, and let us reafon together, faith the Lord: Though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as fnow: Though they be red as crimson, they fhall be as wool." Amen.

THE NATURE AND SOURCE OF THE

SPIRITUAL LIFE *.

SERMON XLI.

JOHN, vi. 57. He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

You

YOU have been eating the bread of the Lord: who thofe are who have done this may be already known; happy are thofe who have ate that bread which is the Lord; who these are muft be difcovered by the effects. Persons will readily look like their meat; they who have ate Christ will look like Chrift, seeing this food has a transforming virtue, there will be fuch a difference betwixt them and others, as that mentioned in Dan. i. 15. "Their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat." Living bread will make living lively fouls: He that eateth me, even ke fball live by me.--In which words we have,

1. The character and privilege of a believer: He fall live, viz. the life of God, from which others are alienated. To his natural life, common with others, by which he is diftinguished from things without life, he shall have another of a more fublime nature, by which he fhall rife fuperior to other men who are dead in fin, while they live a natural

* Delivered at Wamphray, Monday, July 2. 1711. immediately after the difpenfation of the Lord's fupper.

natural life: He fhall live fpiritually and eternally. 2. We have the fpring from whence the belie ver derives this fupernatural life of his, in its beginning, progrefs, and continuation. It is not from himself, he is but a branch, not a rout; it is not immediately from God, as Adam's, but from the Mediator, Jefus Chrift. The juftice and holinefs of God refused an intermediate union with the finful creature, yet there could be no life but as proceeding from God, the prime Fountain of all, and there could be no communication of this. life without union with him; wherefore it pleased God to unite the human nature to the divine in the person of his Son, and fo to make him the Mediator, the mean of the finner's union and communion with the Father; that he deriving life from his Father, they might again derive it from him. This is the import of the former part of the verse, in which Chrift fhews how he comes to be living bread. 1. He is fitted for giving life, feeing he lives by the Father, deriving life from the Fountain of life. 2. There is a divine appointment of him by the Father, by which he was ordained and fet apart to be life-giving bread to his people.

3. We have the way how this life is derived from Chrift to the foul, and this is by eating of him, that is, by faith. It cannot be understood of a corporeal eating, for this eating would not give life: John, vi. 63. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." Our Lord himfelf determines it to be believing, ver. 35. "He that cometh to me fhall never hunger, and he that believeth on me fhall never thirst." The word here ufed properly fignifies a keen appetite, being the fame as in Matth. xxiv. 38. and may denote unto us that greedy appetite which the believer has after Chrift, his foul-food, and that there is no hazard of excefs here, either in the appetite which obKk 2

tains, or in the continuance at this bleffed work; we may eat all the day long, and also in the night, and welcome. Yea, it is remarkable that it is not said, He that hath eaten, that has got a taste of Chrift, and is fatisfied; but he that eateth, denoting a continuing action, fuch as he that breathes, lives. There must be a conftant improvement of Christ as the Fountain of life, a living by belie ving: Gal. ii. 20. "And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

4. We have the peculiar intereft of the believer in this life" Even he fhall live by me." All others are, and will be dead while they live; he, and only he, fhall live; for there is no life but from Chrift, and none from him but by faith.From the words I take this

DOCTRINE, That the believer lives by Christ, deriving his life from him by faith.-For illuftrating this doctrine, I fhall,

I. SHEW what is that life which the believer lives by Chrift, and derives from him.

II. How the believer derives this life from Chrift by faith. And then,

are,

III. Conclude with fome improvement.--We

I. To fhew what is that life which the believer lives by Chrift, and derives from him.-As to this I obferve,

1. That the believer derives from Chrift a life of grace, and lives by him, in oppofition to that death in fin under which all unbelievers are: Eph. ii. 1. "You hath he quickened, who were deadin trefpaffes and fins." The believer has infused into him an inward vital principle of action;

formerly