VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 851
which expressing in another place, he saith, " Your Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him of him." He is given us, and he renews our strength as the eagle's, making our souls, which were ready to languish, prompt, ready, cheerful, strong in the ways of God. To this purpose is that prayer of the spouse. Cant. iv. 16, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; and blow upon my garden, that the savour of my spices may flow out. Let my Beloved come into his garden, that he may eat of the fruit of his precious things." She is sensible of the withering of her spices, the decays of her graces, and her disability thereupon to give any suitable en- tertainment unto Jesus Christ. Hence is her earnestness for new breathings and operations of the Spirit of grace, to renew, and re- vive, and set on work again, her graces in her, which without it could not be done. All graces are the fruits of the Spirit: Gal. v. 22, 23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." If the root do not communicate fresh juice and sap continually, the fruit will quickly wither. Were there not a continual communication of new life and freshness unto our graces from the indwelling Spirit, we should soon be poor withered branches. This our Saviour tells us, John XV. 4, 5, " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for severed from me ye can do nothing." Our abiding in Christ and his in us, is, as was declared, by the indwelling of the same Spirit in him and us. Hence, saith Christ, have ye all your fruit-bearing virtue. And unless that be continued to us, we shall wither and con- sume to nothing. David, in his spiritually-declined condition, en- tangled under the power and guilt of sin, cries out for the continu- ance of the Spirit and the restoring him, as to those ends and purposes in reference whereunto he was departed from him, Ps. Ji. 11, 12. This the apostle pra3's earnestly that the Ephesians may receive : Chap. iii. 14, 16, 17, •' I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," etc. The inner man is the same with the new creature, the new principle of grace in the heart. This is apt to be sick, to faint, and decay. The apostle prays that it might be strengthened. How is this to be done? how is it to be reiiewed, increased, enlivened ? It is, saith he, by the mighty power of the Spirit; and he then gives you particular instances in the graces which flourish and spring up effectually upon that strengthen- ing they receive by the might and power of the Spirit, as of faith.
35 2 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
love, knowledge, and assurance, tlie increasing and establishing of all which are ascribed there unto him. He who bestows these graces on us and works them in us doth also carry them on unto perfec- tion. Were it not for our inflowings from that sj^ring, our cisterns would quickly be dr}'. Therefore our Saviour tells us that he, the Spirit, is unto believers as rivers of living water flowing out of their bowels, John vii. 38, 39 ; as a never-failing fountain, that continu- ally puts forth living waters of grace in us.
This may a little farther be considered and insisted on, being di- rectly to our main purpose in hand. It is true, indeed, it doth more properly belong unto that which I have assigned for the second part of this treatise, concerning the ground or principle of the saints' abiding with God for ever; but falling in conveniently in this order, I shall farther press it from John iv, 14: " Whosoever," saith our Saviour, " shall drink 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 occasion of these words is known ; they are part of our Sa- viour's colloquy with the poor Samaritan harlot. Having told her that he could give her another manner of water, and infinitely better than that which she drew out of Jacob's well, (for which the poor creature did almost contemn him, and asked him whence he had that water whereof he spake, how he came by it, or what he made of himself, — did he think himself a better man than Jacob, who drank of that well which she was drawing water out of?) to con- vince her of the truth and reality of his promise, he compares the water that he would and could give with that which she drew out of the well, especially as to one eminent effect, wherein the water of his promise did infinitely surmount that which she so magnified : for, verse 13, he tells her, [as] for that water in the well, though it allayed thirst for a season, yet within a little while she would thirst again, and must come thither to draw; " But," saith he, " whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." And this he proveth from the condition of tlie water he giveth: " It is a well of water; not a draught, not a pitcherful, as that tliou carriest away, but it is a fountain, a well." " Yea, perhaps in itself it is so, a fountain or well, but he that drinks of it, he hath but one draught of that water." " Nay," saith Christ, " it shall become a well in him ; not a well whereunto he may go, but a well that he shall carry about in him. He that hath a continual spring of living water in him shall doubtless liave no occasion of fainting for thirst any more." This our Saviour amplifies and clears up unto her, from the nature and eneigy of this well of water, "It springeth up into everlasting life;" in these last words instructing the poor sinful creature in the use of the parable that he had used with her. Having taken an occasion to speak to