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who from the cross bore the penitent companion of his last agonies to paradise,-HE hath said—and you have seen how his actions accorded with his words-he hath said " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." "Him that cometh to me in humility and penitence, I will in no wise cast out. In no wise,-in no resentment of any crimes, not even of blasphemy and infidelity previous to his coming, will I exclude him from the light of my doctrine-from the benefits of my atonement-from the glories of my kingdom." Come, therefore, unto him, all ye that are heavy laden with your sins. By his own gracious voice he called you while on earth: by the voice of his ambassadors he continueth to call; he calleth you now by mine. Come unto him, and he shall give you rest,-rest from the hard servitude of sin, and appetite, and guilty fear. That yoke is heavy,—that burthen is intolerable: his yoke is easy, and his burthen light. But come in sincerity;— dare not to come in hypocrisy and dissimulation. Think not that it will avail you in the last day, to have called yourselves Christians-to have been born and educated under the gospel light-to have lived in the external communion of the church on earth,-if all the while. your hearts have holden no communion with its Head in heaven. If, instructed in Christianity, and professing to believe its doctrines, ye lead the lives of unbelievers, it will avail you nothing in the next, to have enjoyed in this world, like the Jews of old, advantages which ye despised,--to have had the custody of a holy doctrine, which never touched your hearts-of a pure commandment, by the light of which ye never walked. To those who disgrace the doctrine of their Saviour by the scandal of their lives, it will be of no avail to have vainly called him'" "Lord, Lord!"

SERMON XXV.

JOHN iv. 42.

We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

SUCH

was the testimony which, in an early period of our Saviour's ministry, the good people of the town of Sychar, in Samaria, bore to the truth of his pretensions. They make, you see, a double profession,-first, of a previous faith in a Christ that was to come; then, of a faith now wrought in them by the preaching of Jesus, that Jesus himself was the person they expected.

From this public confession of the Sycharites, connected with the sentiments which had been expressed by a woman of the same town, in her private conference with our Lord at Jacob's well, these facts, as I showed you in my last discourse, may readily be deduced: that the Samaritans of our Saviour's day, with advantage of less light from revelation, no less than the more instructed Jews, expected a Messiah,-that they knew, no less that the Jews, that the time was come for his appearance, that, in the Messiah who was now to come, they expected not, like the mistaking Jews, a Saviour of the Jewish nation only, or of Abraham's descendants, but of the world,-that they expected a Saviour of the world from moral evil-from the misery of sin and guilt-from the corruptions of ignorance, hypocrisy, and superstition.

Of these facts, I now purpose to investigate the causes. I am to inquire, therefore, first, on what grounds the previous faith which we find in the Samaritans-their faith in a Christ to come, was founded; and, in the next place, what particular evidence might produce their conviction that Jesus was the person they expected actually arrived.

The first question, What were the grounds of their previous faith? may seem naturally to divide itself into two parts,—as it respects this previous faith in that part which was peculiar to the Samaritans; or in that more general part of it in which they only concurred in the universal expectation of all the civilized nations of the world. The expectation of an extraordinary person who should arise about this time in Judea, and be the instrument of great improvements in the manners and condi. tion of mankind, was almost, if not altogether universal at the time of our Saviour's birth; and had been gradually spreading and getting strength for some time before it. The fact is so notorious to all who have any knowledge of antiquity, that it is needless to attempt any proof of it. It may be assumed as a principle which even an infidel of candour would be ashamed to deny; or, if any one would deny it, I would decline all dispute with such an adversary, as too ignorant to receive conviction, or too disingenuous to acknowledge what he must secretly admit. This general expectation was common, therefore, to the Samaritans with other nations: and, so far as it was common, it must be traced to some common source; for causes can never be less general than their effects. What was peculiar to the Samaritans, was the just no. tion which is expressed in my text, and in the private professions of the Sycharite woman, of the nature and extent of the benefits men were to receive from the expected deliverer, and of the means by which the deliverance was to be accomplished.

The subject, therefore, before us, in its first general branch, the inquiry into the grounds of the previous faith of the Samaritans, appears, in this view of it, to be of vast extent and comprehension : for to give the question a complete discussion, and to conduct the inquiry in what might seem the most natural order, it would be necessary to consider, first, the general grounds of the expectation which so generally prevailed; and afterwards, to inquire from what particular sources the Samaritans drew these just views of the Messiah's business which they have been found to entertain. The investigation of the first question would carry us into deep disquisitions of theological antiquities.

It is not much my practice to shrink from difficulties; nor can I bring myself to believe that common people are so incompetent as they are generally supposed to be, to comprehend whatever the preacher will be at the trou. ble to explain. Under the contrary persuasion, I scruple not to serve you with stronger meats than are generally thought fit for popular digestion. I should consult my own ease more, and your advantage less, if I could acquiesce in the general opinion. For our present subject. The condition of the Samaritans in the article of religious information, was, in consequence of their connection with the Jews, so different from that of any other people, that we may reasonably separate the two questions concerning their particular faith and the general expectation of the rest of mankind, and consider them as distinct subjects; for the views of the Samaritans might have been just what they were, although the Gentiles had been left (which never was their case) in total darkness. For the present, therefore, I shall postpone the general question concerning the grounds of the general expectation of the Gentiles (which I purpose, however, with God's gracious assistance, at some future season to resume; but, for the present, I shall postpone it), and,

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confining myself to the particular case of the Samaritans, I shall endeavour to ascertain the particular sources from which they drew their information that the Messiah was to come for the general advantage of mankind, and that he was to come in the character of a public teacher of the true religion. In the first circumstance, their ex. pectations differed from those of the Jews, and, in the second, from those of the whole Gentile world. Now, since these notions, which were peculiar to themselves, could not be formed on any vague traditions which were current among any other people, and since they have been remarkably justified by the event of things, it is most reasonable to suppose that they were drawn immediately from the word of God - from prophecies of the Old Testament, which the Samaritans interpreted with more discernment than the Jews, because they were free from the prejudices which the Jews entertained in favour of their own nation-perhaps for this reason, that being secretly conscious of their spurious original, however they might boast their descent from Abraham, they were unwilling to admit those exclusive claims of his family for which the Jews so zealously contended, and on which their fatal prejudices were founded. But if the notions of the Samaritans were drawn immediately from the Old Testament, it is evident they are to be sought in those parts of it which the Samaritans admitted. The Samaritans admitted no part of the sacred writings of the Jews but the five books of Moses. In the books of Moses, therefore, we are to look for such prophecies of the Messiah as might be a sufficient foundation of the faith of the Samaritans of that pure faith which was free from the errors of the Jews, and far more particular than the general expectation of the Gentiles. In the books of Moses we must look for prophecies of the Messiah, declaring the general extent of the deliverance, he was to accomplish, and describing him in the cha.

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