And it shall be in that day, [that] living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
Ver. 8. Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem] i.e. Abundance of spiritual graces, frequently in Scripture compared to waters, for their cooling, cleansing, quickening property, Isa 44:3 Ezekiel 36:25; Ezekiel 47:1; John 7:38. And of these waters, without all doubt, our baptism, ordained of God, is a figure and sacrament. "Living waters" they are called; that is, running, as a spring, not standing, as a pool. The godly esteem of life by that stirring they find in their souls, Isaiah 38:15,16 "In all these things is the life of my spirit"; else they lament as over a dead soul. O live, live (saith a reverend man, Dr Harris), live quickly, live much, live long. Many live more in a day than others in a year; for life consisteth in action; and so much every man liveth as he acteth graciously. Up, therefore, and be doing something of worth; whereof ye may testify that ye have lived. And for this, get a principle of life, the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, and then, if ye live in the Spirit, ye shall also walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5:25, and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, Zechariah 14:16. The waters of the sea, though by their natural course they follow the centre, yet, by obedience to the moon, they are subject to her motion; and so turn, and return, ebb and flow, and are kept in continual motion, to keep them from corruption; so those that are spiritual, though naturally they are carried downward, and the best that of themselves they can do is but dead work; yet, so far as they are spiritualized, heavenlized, they are acting for God, and all their deeds are wrought in him, John 3:21. It is their great care to wear out, not rust out; to burn out, not to be blown out; yea, to flame out, not to smother out; to serve out their generation, as David did, not to idle it out; to live their utmost, and not (as Job 27:15; Job 27:23) to be buried, before half dead.
In summer and winter shall it be] Such is the perennity and perpetuity of true grace; it ever flows - more perennis aquae, perpetual waters. As it is not like the river Araris, of which Caesar saith that it cannot with eyes be discerned whether it flows forward or backward, so slow and still is its motion; so neither is it like the brook Cherith, that dried up before the prophet, because there had been no rain in the land, 1 Kings 17:7; or like the river Novanus, in Lombardy, which (saith Pliny) at every midsummer solstice swelleth and runneth over the banks; but at midwinter is clean dry; but as the waters of the sanctuary, Ezekiel 47:4,5, &c.; and as the pool of Siloam, which served all Jerusalem, and was for every use to the citizens; or Hezekiah's water courses, 2Ki 20:20 Nehemiah 3:15,16, whereunto some think that the prophet here alludeth. "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake," saith the evangelist, "of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive," John 7:38,39 .