VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIEIT. S53
her of heavenly things from tlie nature of the employment that she was engaged in at present, two or three things may be observed from the words, to give hght into their tendency to the confirmation of the truth we have under consideration : —
(1.) Tlie water here promised by our Saviour is the holy and blessed Spirit; this needs no labour to demonstrate. The Spirit himself so interprets it, John vii. 38, 39, " He that believeth on me," saith our Saviour, " as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive." That which in one place he calleth " a well of water springing up into everlasting life in us," is in the other, in equivalent terms, called " rivers of living water flowing out of our bellies;" and the Holy Ghost tells us that he him- self, the blessed Spirit, is signified by that expression. Neither is there any thing bestowed on us that can be compared to a spring of water rising up, increasing, and flowing out abundantly, upon its own account, but the Spirit only. It is only the Spirit that is a fountain of refreshment, from whence all grace doth abundantly flow. It is, I say, the Spirit whereof we have been speaking, who is procured for us and bestowed upon us by Jesus Christ, which, as an everlasting fountain, continually supplies us with refreshing streams of grace, and fills us anew therewith, when the channels thereof in our souls are ready to become dry. And, —
(2.) The state and condition of them on whom this living water is bestowed, in reference thereunto, is described. Saith our Saviour, " He that hath this Spirit of grace, this well of living water, shall never thirst." It is most emphatically expressed by two negatives, and an exegetical additional term for weight and certainty : Oj [Jjyi di-^rjffp, "He shall never thirst to eternity;" or, as it is expressed, John vi. 35, " He shall never thirst at any time." There is a two- fold thirst: —
[1.] There is a thirst totalis indigentice, of a whole and entire want of that men thirst after; and this is the thirst that returns upon men in their natural lives. After they have allayed it once with natural water, they thirst again ; and their want of water returns as entire and full as if they had never drank in their lives. Such a spiritual thirst doth God ascribe to wicked men, Isa. Ixv. 13, " My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty." Their hunger and thirst is the total want of grace; not that they do desire it, but that they have it not. And this thirst of total want of grace is that that never shall nor can befall them who have received the Spirit of grace as a well of water in them. They can never so thirst as to be returned again into the condition wherein they were before they drank of that Spirit.
[2.] There is also a thirst of desire and complacency of the good
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851 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
things tliirsted after. In this sense they are pronounced blessed wlio " hunger and thirst after righteousness/' Matt. v. 6. And Peter in- stx'ucts us to grow in this thirst more and more : 1 Pet. ii. 2, " As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." The enjoyment of the Spirit doth not take away this thirst, but begin it and increase it; and by this thirst, as one means, are we preserved from that total want and indigene}^, which shall never again befall us.
(3.) Our Saviour gives the reason why and whence it is that they who drink of this water, are made partakers of his Spirit, shall thirst no more, or never be brought to the condition of total want of grace, which they were in before they received him: " Because the water which I shall give them," saith he, " the Spirit which I shall bestow upon them, dwelleth in them," as we have showed, " shall be a well of water," a fountain of grace, " springing up in them to ever- lasting life," continuing and perpetuating the grace communicated, unto the full fruition of God in glory. There are, among others, three eminent things in this reason to confirm us in the faith of the former assertion: —
[1.] The condition or nature of the Spirit in believers. He is a "well, a fountain, a spring," that never can nor will be dry to eternity.
[2.] The constant supplies of groxe that this Spirit affords them in whom he is; he is water always " springing up." So that to say ho will refx'esh saints and believers with his grace, provided that they turn not profligately wicked, is openly to contradict our Saviour Christ, with as direct opposition to the design in the words, as can be imagined. This springing up of grace, which from him is had and received, which is his work in us, is that whereunto this profli- gate wickedness is opposed ; and whilst that is, this cannot be. There is an everlasting inconsistency between profligate wickedness and a never-failing spring of grace.