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teacher sent from God! For it must surely be not only their calamity, but that too of the church in general, if its guides continue ignorant of those sublime and spiritual truths which Christ came down from heaven to reveal, or are so biassed by the carnal reasonings of a depraved mind as to be indisposed and backward to receive them.

SECTION XII.

JOHN III. 12-21.

VERILY, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen: and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

How happy is it for us that, since none of the children of men ever ascended up into heaven to learn the mysteries of Divine knowledge there, the only begotten Son of God has been pleased to come down from thence that he might instruct us! He spake what he knew, and testified what he had seen; Oh

that men were so wise as to receive his testimony, be the discoveries ever so new or the doctrines ever so sublime!

Let us with peculiar pleasure attend unto that abstract of the gospel which he exhibited in this profitable and comprehensive discourse with Nicodemus.-It presents to our view Christ, and him crucified. It opens the treasures of Divine beneficence and compassion, and shews us the Father of mercies so loving a world, which he might justly have abhorred and destroyed, as to give his only begotten Son to be a ransom for it.

Let us behold him lifted up on the cross as the great attractive to whom all were to be drawn! In him shall we find the Divine cure for our souls, infected as they are with the poison of sin, if we behold him not merely with a curious but a believing eye. Whatever our wounds be, if in the exercise of faith we look to him, we shall not die of them; but it is owing to our own obstinacy and impenitence if we yet perish.

He might justly have appeared in a different form for the condemnation of sinners, rather than their salvation. The Son of God might have come into an apostate world armed with thunderbolts of flaming vengeance to punish the violation of his Father's law; but his hands are filled with eternal blessings.

As we love our own souls, let us apply to him in time for this salvation. Let us dread the aggravated condemnation of those who, when light is come into the world, prefer darkness to it, and obstinately shut their eyes against it, though it be the dawnings of an eternal day.

May integrity and uprightness preserve us! (Psalm xxv. 21.) And, conscious of a real desire to govern ourselves according to the light we have, may we cheerfully lay ourselves in the way of more; that in the last awful day, when the sentence of Divine wrath shall be executed on all the servants of sin, and their character shall stand disclosed in the most odious colours, ours may shine out beautiful and fair, and the good deeds that we have done, being now wrought in God, may then not only be accepted and applauded, but through the grace of the Redeemer abundantly rewarded by him!

SECTION XIII.

JOHN III. 22-36.

AFTER these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came and were baptized. For John

Then there arose a

was not yet cast into prison. question between some of John's disciples and the Jews, about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all: he that is of the earth, is earthly, and speaketh of the earth he that cometh from heaven is above all: And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.

It is indeed too true that the spirit which naturally dwelleth in us all lusteth to envy (James iv. 5,) and it is far from being a low attainment in religion to look with complacency and thankfulness on the superior abilities and acceptance of others, especially of those who once appeared in an inferior rank. But for the cure of this unreasonable and restless passion, so contrary to the true spirit of the gospel, let us remember that a man can receive nothing at all except it be given him from heaven. It is God that makes one man to differ from another; and surely nothing can be more unreasonable than that, when we ourselves have received all from his bounty, our eye should be evil because he is good. (Matt. xx. 15.)

If we are indeed the friends of Christ, we shall rejoice to see his interest advance, and especially to see souls espoused

to him as the great Bridegroom of the church, whoever are the instruments of promoting so happy a work. Would to God that in this sense all the Lord's people were even as the greatest of the prophets, or as the very chief of the apostles! (Numb. xi. 29.)

But if indeed they were so, yet, like those brightest luminaries of the church, they must in time have their change and their wane. If God does not darken their glories by a sudden eclipse, yet they who are now, like the Baptist, burning and shining lights, must like him gradually decrease, while others are increasing about them; as they, in their turns, grew up amidst the decays of the former generation. Let us know how to set as well as to rise; and let it comfort our declining days to trace in those that are likely to succeed us in our work the openings of yet greater usefulness. So shall we grow in our meetness for that world where all the righteous shall shine forth together, as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father, in a bright resemblance of him with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

As the surest means of guiding us to that happy world, let us make it our great care, by receiving the testimony of Christ, to set our seal to the truth of God, engaged in his cause.-With how much pleasure should we do it, and with what joy should we reflect that the Father so loveth the Son that he has not only given him the rich and unmeasureable communications of the Spirit, but has committed also into his hand the reins of government! Let his faithful servants remember it with joy, and cheerfully commit their concerns to him who is made head over all things for the benefit of his church. (Ephes. i. 22.)

And to conclude; let it engage us to see the sincerity of our faith in him and subjection to him; since it is not a light matter, but our life, even the very life of our souls. May God awaken those on whom his wrath now abideth to a sense of their danger; and may he strengthen in each of our souls that faith which is the pledge of a happy immortality!

SECTION XIV.

JOHN IV. 1-26.

WHEN therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. 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. 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. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jésus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 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? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 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? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what:

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