upon these grammatical refinements. The observation may be partly just: In many instances, however, it hath been misapplied; and I would advise the unlearned reader of the English Bible, wherever the world is mentioned, to take the word in its most natural, that is, in its most extended meaning. This rule will seldom mislead him; and the few instances in which it may be incorrect, are certain passages of history in which exactness of interpretation is not of great, at least not of general importance. In the text however at present before us, the original word is not that which is supposed to be capable of a limited interpretation: On the contrary, it is that word which is used by the sacred writers, to denote the mass of the unconverted Gentile world, as distinguished from God's peculiar people. Of this world, therefore, and, by consequence, of the whole world, the Samaritans, as it appears by the text, expected in the Christ the Saviour. It appears too, from the particulars of our Saviour's conference with the woman at the well, which are related in the preceding part of this chapter, it appears, that of the means by which

the Messiah was to effect the salvation of the world, these same people had a very just, though perhaps an inadequate apprehension.

They expected him to save the world by teaching the true religion. "I know," said the woman, "when the Messiah is come, he will tell us all things,"-all things concerning the worship of God; for that was the topic in discussion. The circumstances which the evangelist's narrative discovers of this woman's former life give us no reason to suppose that she had been a person of a very thoughtful religious turn of mind, which had led her to be particularly inquisitive after the true meaning of the prophecies. It is to be supposed, therefore, that the notions which she expressed were the common notions of her country. It was the notion therefore of the Samaritans of this age, that teaching men the true religion would be in great part the means which the Messiah would employ for the general salvation of mankind: And since this was their notion of the means by which the Messiah's salvation should be effected, they must have placed the salvation itself in such a deliverance, as these means were naturally fitted to accomplish, — in a deliverance of mankind from the corruptions which ignorance, hypocrisy, and superstition, had introduced in morals and religion, and particularly in the rites of external worship. Another thing appears by the woman's profession, that the Samaritans were aware that the time

was actually come for this deliverer's appear

ance. Jesus had said to her "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” The woman took this declaration in its true meaning. She answered-" I know" (these words in the beginning of the woman's answer are opposed to those in which our Saviour had bespoken her attention, "Believe me"): "You have my belief," she said. "I know you tell me what is true: I know that the Messiah is just now coming (that is the precise meaning of the original words) : I know that the appointed time is come, that the Messiah must presently arrive; and I know that when that person is come, he will tell us all things." Great and innumerable are the mysteries of godliness! These Samaritans, who knew not what they worshipped, had truer notions of the Messiah's office, and of the nature and extent of the deliverance he was to work, than the Jews had, who for many ages had been the chosen depositaries of the oracles of God. Samaritans looked for a spiritual, not a temporal for a universal, not a national deliverance; and, by a just interpretation of the signs of the times, they were apprized that the

The

time in which Jesus of Nazareth arose, was the season marked by the prophetic spirit for the Messiah's appearance. Attend, I beseech you, to this extraordinary fact, deduced, if I mistake not, with the highest evidence, from the public profession of the Sycharites which is contained in my text, connected with the particular professions of the woman. This fact will lead us to interesting speculations, and to conclusions of the highest importance. The use I would at present make of it, is only to admonish you, by this striking instance, of how little benefit what are called the external means of grace may prove the advantages even of a Divine revelation,of how little benefit they may prove to those whose minds are occupied with adverse prejudices, or who trust so far to that partial favour of the Deity, of which they erroneously conceive the advantages of their present situation to be certain signs, as to be negligent of their own improvement. On the other hand, you see what a proficiency may be made, by God's blessing, on the diligent use of scanty talents. The Samaritans, you see, who were not included in the commonwealth of Israel, who had no light but what came to them obliquely, as it were, by an irregular reflection from the Jewish temple - no instruc

tion but that of fugitive priests, and under the protection of a heathen prince-these Samaritans had so far improved under this imperfect discipline, as to attain views of the promised redemption of which the Jews themselves missed, whom the merciful providence of God had placed under the immediate tuition of Moses and the prophets.

I return to the analysis of my text. The third circumstance to be remarked in this profession of the Sycharites, is the great warmth and energy of expression with which they declare their conviction, that Jesus was that universal Saviour whose arrival at this

season they expected. "We know," they say to the woman (this word expresses an assurance of the mind far stronger than belief): "We give entire credit to your report. But your assertion is no longer the ground of our belief; our persuasion goes far beyond any belief founded upon the testimony of a third person. We believe your report; but we believe it because we ourselves have heard him. And we know, and can maintain each of us upon his own proper knowledge and conviction, that this person is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." Would God, that all who now name the name of Christ, I had almost said, were Sycharites!