of the Spirit, what concluding word shall I address?-By that spiritual mindedness which is life and peace, and by a holy, and consistent conduct, put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. "As free, yet not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness; but as the servants of Christ honour all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king. Servants be obedient to your masters; children obey your parents; parents bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, remembering, whosoever you are, that it is by all manner of holy conversation and godliness in the life, it is thus only that you can substantially and satisfactorily evidence a work of the Spirit in your hearts. Lastly my christian brethren, I exhort you to pray; be much in prayer, continue with one accord in prayer to God; that you may hereby draw down his blessings, and the grace of his Holy Spirit, in an abundant measure, on the neighbourhood in which you live, and the church, of which you are members; upon the congregations with whom you wor

ship, and the ministers whom God in his providence hath appointed over you; upon the various societies, the rising generation, all sorts and conditions of men, and to speak in the comprehensive language of the text, " upon all flesh." And may the Lord so enlarge the hearts and desires of his people, that they comprehending within the compass of their intercessions these various subjects, may "give him no rest" until he hath sent a gracious rain, a plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon his inheritance, and hereby not only made Jerusalem (which is at present as a wilderness) a praise in the earth; but also caused the wide extended deserts of heathen lands to rejoice and blossom as the rose.

SERMON V.

THE STREAMS OF GRACE AND

SALVATION.

PSALM XLVI. 4.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.

A RIVER is one of the most beautiful objects in nature, and it is not more distinguished for its beauty, than it is eminent for its utility. It fertilizes whilst it beautifies the country through which it flows; it becomes the promoter of health and cleanliness; and is, more or less, the sustainer of animal and vegetable life; it ministers to the necessities and luxury of man, and is often a medium of commercial intercourse between distant towns. Cities and empires, the most renowned, have usually been indebted to rivers for much of their national prosperity and political pre-eminence. Hence it is, that

the sacred writings, which abound in the figurative style, employ with much advantage an object, at once so beautiful and useful, in the outward creation, to represent to our minds correspondent excellencies in the economy of grace. Which will account for the beautifully appropriate and striking metaphor in the text-" There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." That which the Psalmist here intends to describe is the presence of God abiding with his church, his providence watching over her, and his power exerted in her defence; and, thus maintaining in the hearts of his people, inward peace and confidence in the midst of the most tremendous political convulsions, and outward calamity and distress. But the same inspired writer speaks in language exactly similar, in the 65th Psalm, of "the river of God;" and in the 36th, of "the river of his pleasures."

I. Preserving, therefore, the general metaphor, we may find it both interest

ing and useful to descend to some particulars respecting this river of God; and

1. Of its properties. It is the river of the water of life, and as such possesses a quickening property-the power not only of sustaining and repairing the functions of life, but of imparting the vital principle itself. This may be gathered from the Prophet Ezekiel, who in his vision of holy waters, an account of which is recorded in the 47th chapter of his prophecies, describes, in the 9th verse, the life-giving property of which we are speaking; "And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live." This river of God possesses likewise a healing quality. The Arabs attributed medicinal virtues to the waters of the Euphrates; those of Jordan were miraculously employed to heal the leprosy of Naaman the Assyrian; and it is related of Bethesda, a celebrated pond or fountain existing in our Saviour's time, that " An Angel went down at a certain season, and troubled the water; and it came to pass,

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