Page:Christ's napkin.pdf/17

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A COMMUNION SERMON.
17

Who will ſhew us any good thing? and Satan is ready at his elbow with his diſhful of the dirty miry matters of luſt to the world, and he drinks while he ſwears and tynes breath, and tynes a' fight and deſire of Chriſt, the fountain of the water of life, John vii. 37. It is true this fountain of life is ſaid to proceed out of the throne of God, and from the Lamb: but it is all one; for the ſtreams of the water of life proceed from the fountain Chriſt. How then is the water Chriſt? Chriſt as man dying and ſending out his heart's blood for quenching of the thirſt of ſuch poor ſinners as find the fire of hell at the ſtomach of their ſoul burning them up with the fire of the wrath of God for ſin; this is the reaſon why he is called the fountain of the water of life. As,

1. Becauſe a man burnt with thirſt, nothing can quench him, no, not a world of gold is ſo good as a drink of pure, cold, clean fountain-water. In a word, a ſoul weakened under ſin, findeth nothing in the world ſatisfactory to the ſoul's appetite, but in Chriſt. Tell me, art thou a thirſty ſinner after Chriſt? thy ſoul is dead-ſick while thou get him. Lay a man down on a ſoft bed, dry the ſweat off him, give him a cold refreſhing drink. Now, ye cannot ſpeak ſuch a word to a ſoul-burſten-thing under ſin, as to lay it upon a crucified Chriſt: O that is a ſoft bed; his ſinful foul being ſtretched upon the open, warm, flowing blood and wounds of Chriſt: O that is a ſoft bed. O but a part of Chriſt's blood is a refreſhing, cooling drink to him. To a ſlave of hell to know that he is made a free heir of heaven, O that is ſweet: hence it is, that those that are wakened with the furies of hell, howbeit they know not yet what Chriſt is to them; yet this world cannot calm their conſcience, becauſe