this your experience, my beloved Brethren? Does the whole universe appear to you but " as a broken cistern," and is Christ the only fountain from whence you desire to draw? O that you may be able more and more to say, " All my fresh springs are in thee"!"]
3. How happy is the Christian's state —
[Doubtless there is a great diversity in men's attainments: there are babes, and young men, and fathers in the family of Christ. But in this there is a resemblance among them all : they are full of gratitude to their incarnate God : and all their hope is in his power and grace. They are also active in dif- fusing the knowledge of him. They will not spend their time in disputing about matters of doubtful disputation, whether relating to doctrines, or to sects and parties, but will labour to promote the glory of their God. Whether they be ministers or not, they will all be priests in their own families, and all be anxious to guide their friends and neighbours to the knowledge of the truth. Having experienced the life-giving virtue of that fountain, will they see their neighbours perishing with thirst, and not point it out ? No : they will desire that others should " receive out of the fulness that is in Christ," and would have *' all flesh to see the salvation of God."]
^ Ps. Ixxxvii, 7.
Isai. xiv. 2. They shall take them captives whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.
IN the midst of the prophecies relating to the deh- verance of the Jews from Babylon, we shall find many expressions which necessitate us to look forward to some other event for their full accomplishment. The destruction of Babylon is undoubtedly the subject of this and of the preceding chapter. The whole forms one prophecy, abounding with the most beautiful imagery, and, in point of composition, equalling, if not excelling, the most admired poems of antiquity. But if we could confine the preceding part of this verse, and the verse before it, to that event, (which yet we cannot with any propriety,) what must we do with the words before us ? they were never accom- plished at that period : the Jews did not carry the