that we can find no peace but in crying unto God, and pleading with him the merits of his dear Son? Is Christ, in this view, "precious" to our souls ?* Is HE "our wisdom, HE our righteousness, HE our sanctification, HE our complete redemption ?"+ Having nothing in ourselves, do we make HIM our "all in all ?" Are we at the same time "renewed in the spirit of our minds ?" De we hate sin, not merely as it is destructive, but as it is defiling, to the soul? Do we account" the service of God to be perfect freedom ;" and instead of wishing his law reduced to the standard of our practice, do we desire to have our practice raised to the standard of his law? Is it our labour to "shine as lights in a dark world," and "to shew forth in our own conduct the virtues of him that has called us ?" Let us all put these questions to ourselves; and they will soon shew us what we are. If this be not the state of our souls, we are in an awful condition indeed. Our very best ser * 1 Pet. ii. 7. † 1 Cor. i. 30. ‡ Col. iii. 11.. 1 Pet. ii. 9. a'gera's.

:

vices have been nothing but a solemn mock. ery in our prayers we have insulted, rather than worshipped, the Majesty of Heaven; we have come before our God "with a lie in our right hand ;"* O that it might please God to discover to us the heinousness of our guilt; and that we might all be "pricked to the heart," ere it be too late! Let us, the very next time we attempt to use this prayer, take notice of the frame of our minds let us mark the awful incongruity between our professions and our actual experience and let a sense of our hypocrisy lead us to repentance. Thus shall the returning seasons of worship be attended with a double advantage to our souls: in praying for what we ought to seek, we shall be stirred up to seek it in good earnest: and through the tender mercy of our God we shall attain the experience of those things, which too many of us, it is to be feared, have hitherto hypocritically asked and ignorantly condemned.

*Isaiah xliv. 20.

"THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS."

A

SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

ON SUNDAY, MAY 14, 1809.

BY THE

REV. CHARLES SIMEON, M. A.

FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS Sermon was written hastily, and not with the smallest view to publication: and it is printed only in deference to the opinions and wishes of some of the author's more judicious friends, in hopes that the candid attention with which it was heard, might procure for it a favourable reception with the public at large.