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 his spiritual city, or doctrinal tenets, may, by this fountain, be effectually cleansed from their pollutions. The sacred poet breaks forth into singing, as he utters the words, "There is a stream whose gentle flow makes glad the city of our God!" That stream is living; those waters are purifying: they are truths with which the ocean of holiness teems; and that ocean is the sacred repository of God's most holy Word.

David is typical of the Lord, who waits to make the heart of every man His house; who stands at the door and pleads for admission: but He cannot enter a defiled habitation; and man, of himself, is incapable of purifying it. Immersed in evil, his whole head is sick, and his whole heart faint. What can he do? He can desire to become pure; he can pray to the Lord to assist him, that he may put away the evil of his doings; he can plead with the Lord, while he acknowledges his inability; and mercy of mercies! "in that day," in that state of his humble and repentant mind, a fountain is opened for sin: his heart undergoes a purifying process, by the waters or truths of this fountain; they not only discover his pollutions, but commence the removal of them: where evil and the love of self dwelt, the love of the Lord is substituted; good takes up its abode, and a new heart is given. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem also come under the renovating process; the doctrines which the man held, and which, while the heart was evil, harmonized with its deceitful depravity, and by their sophistry even confirmed the pollutions that had their seat within, become, in their turn, the subjects of the scrutiny of truth. Their sophistries are unmasked; their true hideousness is disclosed; ther deformity is laid bare,