1027.] The Fountain Of Living Waters. 15

source of melancholy ? Surely they who harbour such an opinion have never known what religion is. That a neglect of religion will make us melancholy, is clear enough, as well from the dissatisfaction which, notwithstanding our diversified enjoyments, generally prevails, as from the disquietude which men feel in the prospect of death and judgment. But religion, true religion, brings peace into the soul : it leads us to the Fountain of Living Water, where we can at all times quench our thirst, and taste beforehand the felicity of heaven. Our blessed Lord invites us to him in this view : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink;" and " the water that I will give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life." Listen, then, to that expostulation of the prophet ; " Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul de- light itself in fatness." Return to the Fountain ; and make the experiment, at least : see whether there be not more happiness in turning from vanity, than in embracing it ; in seeking after God, than in forsaking him ; in the holy exercises of prayer and praise, than in a brutish neglect of these duties ; in applying to your souls the promises of Christ, than in a profane contempt of them : and, lastly, in obtaining sweet foretastes of heavenly bliss, than in reluctant ap- proaches towards an unknown eternity. O that I might not commend this Fountain to you in vain ! All ranks and orders amongst you are beginning to shew a laudable attention to the theory of religion : O that you might begin to shew it to the practice also ! You are not backward to manifest your appro- bation of that zeal which directs you to the evidences of religion : be ye not therefore offended with that, which solicits your attention to its effects.