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"the Privilege about which you contend "fhall be taken from both.

2. Our Saviour doth however determine the Queftion pofitively in thefe Words: Te worship ye know not what we know what we worship; for Salvation is of the Jews. That is, "However for the prefent I tell you, that tho' you worship the Father of

all Things, yet you know him not, you "know not his Will, and rejecting the Pro"phets, you alfo reject that plain Rule, ac"cording to which God will be ferved. But "the Jews, who offer Sacrifices according "to the Law of Mofes, and the Rule of the "Prophets Writings, do know that they "obferve the Will of God, and particularly in this thing, that they offer Sacrifices at

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Jerufalem, the Place that God had chofen "wherein to record his Name. And as "Ferufalem, and the Temple there, is the "Place which God hath honoured, by rai

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fing up Prophets among them, fo that is "the Place, which he does, and will farther honour, by the publick preaching of the "Doctrine of Salvation. For as the Meffias "is of the Jewish Nation, fo in Jerufalem firft is the Word of Salvation to be preach“ ed by him, and his Minifters.

Now our Saviour having thus anfwered the Woman's Queftion, returns to the firft and more neceffary Inftruction, viz. that it

was

was now high time for Men and Women to apply their Minds to Things of greater Moment, than the Controverfy about Gerizim and Jerufalem. But, fays he, the hour cometh, and now is, when the true Worshippers fballWorship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; For the Father feeketh fuch to Worship him, that is, there is another kind of Service and Worship, which both Samaritans and Jews are almoft quite Strangers unto, and is of a very different Nature from that of bringing Sacrifices of Birds and Beafts to a Temple, that pretends to the Privilege of being the only Place for that purpofe in the World; And this Worship cheifly confifts in offering Prayers and Thanksgivings to God out of a Mind full of Piety, Purity, and Charity; And with this Worship God is incomparably more delighted than with whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices: And to make Way for this, all the Frame of your External Religion fhall foon come to an End, and the Doctrine by which it is to be done is already begun to be preach'd to the World.

Then our Saviour ends with the Reafon why this Worship is most pleasing to God, as in the Text, God is a Spirit, and they that Worship him, muft Worship him in Spirit, and in Truth.

Thus

Thus much concerning the Occafion of the Words, and the Light that yields for our understanding of them.

In difcourfing whereupon, that which I defign is,

I. Farther to explain and illuftrate the true Meaning of our Saviour in them.

II. To put in exprefs Cautions against Conclufions that have been weakly inferr'd from them.

III. To prefs the true practical Doctrine that is contained in them by suitable Exhortation.

I. To explain and illuftrate the true Meaning of the Words: To which End it will be needful to enquire into these three Things only.

1. What we are to understand by that Saying, God is a Spirit?

2. What it is to worship God in Spirit and in Truth?

3. Wherein lies the Force of that Reason why we must worship God in Spirit and in Truth, because God is a Spirit?

1. What is the Meaning of Spirit, when it is faid, God is a Spirit?

And without doubt the Word Spirit is here used to exprefs the Nature and Effence of God: And it fignifies Two Things.

1. That God hath nothing of Body or Matter in his Nature, but is purely a Mind, that is, according to the more popular way

of

of fpeaking, a Spirit. It requires great exercife of Thought to arrive at the Philofo phical Notion of Mind or Spirit, and moft Men letting in the far greater part of their Knowledge from Impreffions made upon the outward Senfes by bodily Things, lie under great Dificulties when they try to apprehend the Nature of a Spirit, and commonly they confound it with the Imagination of Body or Matter: But the nicety of the Notion is not neceffary to Religion; It is enough for us to understand, that there is fomething in our felves, and that the far Nobler Part of our Natures, by which we think, we reafon, we know Good from Evil, we have free-Will, and can choose a greater Good, which we forefee, before a leffer Good that is present, in a Word, by which we are Reafonable Creatures. Now that Part of our Natures by which we do all this, is not Bodily Life, or any Compofition of Matter, it being impoffible for mere Matter to think or reafon, and very evident that we can exercife thefe rational Powers very often when the bodily Life is almoft quite deceas'di It being then our Mind or Spirit by which we are capable of these things; when we fay God is a Spirit, our meaning is, that he is a Free Agent, and that he is a Wife and Good Being, and that whereas we are Body as well as Spirit, he is purely a Spirit that

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is, that Freedom and Wifdom, and Knowledge, and Goodness is his Nature, without the Compofition of any thing that is Body or Matter. So that the Likenefs in which we are created to the Divine Nature refpecteth only our Inmaterial and Spiritual Part; For nothing that can be feen or felt, nothing that isfo imperfect as Body, can be like to the Godhead, which is a pure Spirit.

Now that which our Saviour here affirms of the Spirituality of the Divine Nature (though it was not altogether unknown to the wifeft Philofophers, for Tully tells us, that God is a Mind Pure from all mixture of that which is Material and Mortal, yet) was never before delivered as a Doctrine of Religion: For though in the Old Teftament we meet with frequent mention of the Spirit of God, yet it was our Bleffed Saviour, who first of all inftructed Mankind, That God is a Spirit, not concealing fo high a Point from a Woman, that seemed not to be extraordinarily verfed in Divine Matters. This was the proper Foundation for the removal of all Superftition and Idolatry out of the World, and therefore fitteft to be made known by him, who came with unqueftionable Authority from God to make an Univerfal Reformation of the Miftakes of Men in things relating to God, and to bring into Practice the best and most perfect Way of

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