displeasure of Almighty God. The Gospel purports to be a revelation from heaven, declaring a way for our recon- ciliation with God. It announces to us a Saviour, even the only-begotten Son of God, as becoming incarnate, and dying upon the cross for our sins; that, through Him, all that believe may be justified from all the sins that ever they have com- mitted. Will any one then say, that we ought not to wish this revelation to be true? or is it a subject on which we ought to speculate, as if we had no interest whatever in it ? If a number of rebels, under sentence of death, were informed that the king had sent a free pardon to them, would it become them to receive the tidings with perfect indifference, and to amuse themselves with abstract speculations about the nature and degrees of evidence, without any concern about the prof- fered benefit? No man would for a moment approve of such apathy ; no man would blame a wish to ascertain the truth of such a report, or a readiness to credit it on sufficient evidence. And precisely in that situation do we stand ; and such should be the disposition of our minds towards the Gospel of Christ.]
To this we are greatly encouraged by, II. The benefit he derived from it —
Two things we behold, as immediately resulting from it :
1. Christ's manifestation of himself to him —
[To no one, except the Samaritan woman, did our Lord so frankly and so fully declare his own Messiahship, as to this man. To her, upon her saying, " I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ ; when He is come, he will tell us all things ;" he plainly replied, " I, that speak unto thee am Hek." So, to this persecuted man he also, with the same frankness, proclaimed his divine mission : " Dost thou ask who the Son of God is ? Thou hast both seen him ; and he it is that talketh with thee." I say not but that, on some occasions, both to his Disciples and to Pilate, he acknowledged himself to be the Messiah : but to no person did he give so direct, and full, and positive an assurance, as to these two most favoured people : to the woman, in order to shew, to all future genera- tions, that " where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound1:" and to the man, that he might encourage all to take up their cross boldly, and follow him.
But does this instance encourage any hope in us? Yes, assuredly it does : for, if we really desire to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, and to cleave unto him, " he will come to us, and manifest himself unto us, as he does not unto the world."
k John iv. 25, 26. • Rom. v. 20.