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ftead of forfaking the assembling ourselves together, let us exhort one another thereto more and more, both by Word and Example.Instead of neglecting the House of God, let it be our Delight and Glory, as much as it is our Duty, to offer up Prayers and Praises to him in the Congregation of his Saints; as well knowing, that those who honour him, he will honour; and that they who defpife him (however exalted in their own Imaginations) hall, in the great Day of Retribution, be lightly efteemed.

VOL. II.

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SERMON

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SERMON VI

W

JOHN iv. 22.

Salvation is of the Jews.

E have in this Chapter one of the moft exprefs Declarations, which our bleffed Lord ever made in the Course of his Miniftry, that he was the Meffias, or Saviour of the World. We find him difcourfing with a Samaritan Woman, whofe Conduct, as foon as she discovers him to be a Prophet, deferves our Notice. Wę find in her an earneft Enquiry where the Truth lay with regard to the Differences between the Jews and Samaritans, which were carried to implacable Hatred and Malice; a firm Belief in the Promises, and an Expectation of the Coming of the Meffias; a Readinefs in becoming his Difciple when she had found him, and an Endeavour to bring the other Samaritans to a Belief in him. — As foon as his telling her of fome of the private Tranfactions of her Life had convinced her that he came from God, fhe is very folicitous to know, whether the Worship which the Samaritans

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Samaritans paid to God on Mount Gerizim, or that which the Jews paid him at Jerufalem, was the true Worship which he required, and would be accepted by him.-To which our bleffed Lord anfwers to this Effect: That though the Worship of God was at present confined to People and Place, yet the Time would foon come, when thofe Partition-Walls fhould be broken down, and no Man fhould be obliged to repair to either of the Places in question to worship, but should be accepted in any Place, if he worshipped the Father in Spirit and in Truth.-The Hour cometh, when ye fball neither in this Mountain, nor yet at Jerufalem, worship the Father; that is, the Time is at hand, when the Worfhip of the Father fhall not be confined either to this Mountain, or to Jerufalem. And in Anfwer to the main Question concerning the Jews and Samaritans, our Lord obferves, that great was the Advantage of the Jews on feveral Accounts. In the firft Place their Worship was paid to the true Object of it, and confined to him alone; whereas the Samaritans worshipped falfe Gods as well as the true one, and thereby robbed him of the Honour which was due only to his Name, and gave his Glory to others.-Ye worship ye know not what; you pay your Adorations to the Idols of the Nations, whom neither you nor they can know to be Gods; but we know what we worship; that is, we know that all the Divine Honours we pay are

confined

confined to that fupreme Being only, who is Lord of Heaven and Earth.-Befides which, fays our bleffed Saviour himself, there is likewife this most effential Difference between you and them, that Salvation is of the Jews. That is, they are not only free from Idolatry, of which you are guilty, but they have also this glorious Privilege, that Salvation, or the Saviour, by whom alone any Worship will be made acceptable to God, and in whom alone finful Man will be reconciled to his Maker, or can reasonably hope for Mercy and Happinefs from him: That, I fay, this Perfon, this great and mighty Deliverer, who will fubdue the Nations, and conquer Sin and Death for us, will be of the Seed of David, and of the Tribe of Judah; Salvation, or the Saviour of the World, is only of the Jews. In fpeaking to which Words I fhall endeavour to fhew,

I. That Salvation, or an Exemption from
the Punishment of Sin, and a Title to
future Happiness, has been obtained and
purchased for the Sons of Men by this
bleffed Jefus, who is here fpeaking, and
who afterwards, ver. 26. expressly tells
the Samaritan Woman, that he was the
Meffias, and who was by Nation a Jew,
and defcended from the Stock of Abra-
ham.
II. That as he is the Author of Salvation to
Men, fo he is the only Author of it.-

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