John 4

Answ. 1. We please God when we comport with his Will. It was Christ's meat and drink to do his Father's will (John 4:34). and so he pleased him (Matthew 3:17). A voice came from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

The Angel of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1), a Lamp (2 Samuel 22:29), the bright Morning-star (Revelation 22:16). Jesus Christ is the great Prophet of his church; the woman of Samaria gave a shrewd guess (John 4:19). He is the best teacher; he makes all other teaching effectual (Luk…

He came to the fig tree, and would have eaten. 2. Weariness: as when he sat on Jacob's well to rest him (John 4:6). 3. Sorrow (Matthew 26:38).

Resp. God is a Spirit. 2. The thing expressed (John 4:24). God is a Spirit.

Such as know not God aright, will by degrees fall off. The Samaritans sometimes sided with the Jews when they were in favor, afterwards disclaimed all kindred with them, when Antiochus persecuted the Jews: And no wonder the Samaritans were no more fixed in religion, if you consi…

1. To make a true image of God is impossible. God is a spiritual essence (John 4:24). And being a spirit he is invisible (Deuteronomy 4:15).

And, it is God's goodness thus by sacraments to condescend to our weak capacities. John 4:48. Except you see signs you will not believe. God to strengthen our faith confirms the covenant of grace, not only by promises, but by sacramental signs.

His words, either preceptive or minatory, must be observed. Christ himself, as man, obeyed God the Father (John 4:34), much more than must we (Deuteronomy 27:10). 2. Obey God the Son (Psalm 2:12).

Communion of Saints we have in our Creed, but it is too little in our practice: men usually travel fastest in company, we travel fastest to heaven in the Communion of Saints. 15. If we would attain to this Kingdom of Heaven, let us be willing to come up to Christ's terms; many w…

Jesus Christ did his Father's will; (John 6:38) I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. God the Father and Christ, as they have but one essence, so but one will; Christ's will was melted into his Father's; (John 4:34) My meat is to do the…

That he have the understanding or apprehension of the things that are promised, and of the terms of the promise: there can be no justifying faith without this; the object must be revealed to the man, or otherwise it cannot be relied upon by him; without the knowledge he cannot c…

And the comeliness and beauty of Gospel worship, consisteth in its relation to God by Jesus Christ, as the merciful high-Priest over his house, with the glorious administration of the spirit therein. The order also of it lies in the due and regular observation of all that Christ…

Of old both to the things themselves, and the places wherein they were according to his appointment to be celebrated; those of places, being also of his special institution. Under the New Testament, all difference of, and respect to place is taken away (John 4:21). The hour come…

Q. What is the work of Christ as a Prophet? A. To reveal and make known to his people the counsel and will of God (Deuteronomy 18:18; John 1:18; John 4:25; John 15:15; Matthew 11:27). Q. How does he this?

How can nature do them? So disputed the woman of Samaria with Christ, John 4:11. When Christ told her he would give her of the water of life; she replied, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the Well is deep: whence then hast thou that water of life?

For, these servants of God, here commended for their faith, did fly when they were persecuted; and that by faith: therefore the action is lawful, as I might prove at large, but that I have spoken of it heretofore. When our Savior Christ knew that the Pharisees heard of the multi…

Him that is invisible.] That is God, who is a most simple essence, void of all composition, or corporal substance: for, God is a Spirit, (John 4.24) and therefore invisible, and not subject to man's senses. But some will say, God is said to have head, heart, hands, and feet; wit…

Answer. We must know, that there is in the child of God a certain seed, or beginning, or preparation to a true and lively faith; which our Savior Christ in the Scriptures, does honor with the title of a true and lively faith: as, when a man knows no more but this, that Christ Je…

John confesseth, I am not the Christ (John 1:20). The Woman of Samaria said, I know the Messiah commeth which is called the Christ (John 4:25). Apollos mightily convinced the Jews, shewing by the Scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:28).

(1.) In that it is suited to the nature of God, so as that thereby he is glorified as God. For God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit, which our Savior asserts to belong to the Gospel-state, in opposition to all the most glorious carnal ordinances and institutions of…

(1) As to its time, there is a determined and unalterable day fixed for it; God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). And this time is commonly called the day of judgement (Matthew 10:15, Chapter 11:22, 24, Chapter 12:32, Mark 6:11, 2…

God in an especial manner requires truth in the inward parts in all that come to him (Psalm 51:6). Especially he does so in his worship (John 4:24). Now truth respects either the mind, and is opposed to falsehood; or respects the heart and affections, and is opposed to hypocrisy.

Judgment is taken sometimes for punishment itself (Psalms 9:16; James 2:13; 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Peter 2:3). But most commonly it is used for the sentence of judicial condemnation and trial, determining the offender to punishment; and so 'tis most commonly used to express the general…

So is the gift of Christ used also (Ephesians 4:7): according to the measure of the gift of Christ, that is, according as he is pleased to give and grant of the fruits of the Spirit to men; see (Romans 5:15, 17; Ephesians 3:7). Sometimes it is taken for the thing given; properly…

3. The season of his speaking these words in the manner declared, was, on his coming into the World; therefore coming (or when he cometh) into the World, he says, [in non-Latin alphabet], veniens or venturus; when he was to enter into the World, when the design of his future com…

For the former petition is a step or degree to these two following. The ruler by the healing of the body of his child is brought to believe in Christ (John 4:53). He then that will rest on God's mercy for the pardon of his sins, must first of all rest on God's providence for thi…

Well, this foolish and ridiculous kind of faith we renounce, as being a means to nestle men in blindness, superstition, and perpetual ignorance: yet withal we do not deny but that there is an implicit or infolded faith; which is, when a man as yet having but some little portion…

'Tis Paul's advice, be instant in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2), not only at such seasons as are fairly offered, but where corruption and laziness would plead an excuse. Christ discoursed with the woman at the well when weary (John 4). We have but a little while to li…

We hold that there is a kind of implicit or unexpressed faith, and indeed that the faith of every man in some part of his life — as in the time of his first conversion, and in the time of some grievous temptation or distress — is implicit or enfolded. The Samaritans are said to…

And indeed this is the right use we should make of differences in Religion, not to throw off all Religion (for a man may upon the very same ground abandon his reason, because of the differences and contradictions in mens reasonings one with another) but to be the more inquisitiv…

1. God is a Spirit, and thereupon in a special manner (as Wisdom 11:26) the Lord a lover of souls above all his other creation. So it is there, You are merciful to all because they are yours, O LORD YOU LOVER OF SOULS [God is a Spirit] when therefore this naked, and withal subli…

But there is no word of institution in the New Testament to sanctify any one place more than another, but on the contrary it lays all places level in regard of holiness. When the woman of Samaria pleaded, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is…

This a ruling Elder ought to do by virtue of his calling, and with authority (1 Thessalonians 5:12). Private Christians ought in charity to instruct the ignorant (John 4:29; Acts 18:26), to exhort the negligent (Hebrews 3:15 & 10:24, 25), to comfort the afflicted (1 Thessalonian…

That you may know the excellency of this life, consider it comparatively with this other life, that we live: It has three properties wherein it differs from, and excels this common life which we all live. First, it is an eternal life (John 6): "Your fathers did eat manna and die…

4. And therefore, fourth: "That Holy Spirit alone is able to bring anyone to the saving perception of this theology, or to bestow on anyone the understanding by which the evangelical doctrine is savingly understood (John 16:13; 1 John 2:20; 1 Corinthians 2:10–16; 2 Corinthians 4…

Christ dismissed all external splendor and all carnal adornment, however resplendent with visible glory, by newly appointing to His worship very few ceremonies, and those simple ones. See (John 4:23; 2 Corinthians 3:6-11; Hebrews 9:1-12). But as long as it pleased God to employ…

In this is forbidden no continuance, no care, too little, too slack, etc. (Genesis 3; Eve; David, 2 Samuel 11:1-2-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:3-6). The remedy of our sins in these, is Christ his death; with his knowledge (Luke 2:52); with his feeling (John 4:34); with his zeal (John 2:…

In which part, by a usual manner of the Law, a part being put for the whole, as in the 6th, 7th, and 9th commandments, and that one of the foulest, look to note the filthiness of the rest, we are forbidden generally to acknowledge, love, delight in, desire, make or use, being ma…

Use 1. Wonder, believers, at the extensiveness and infiniteness of the grace of God, and at the heart-affecting and soul-ravishing love of the mediator — at grace in God that spared the debtor and exacted payment from the surety the Son of his love; at love in the mediator that…

I rejoiced, says he, (Proverbs 8:28) in the habitable parts of the earth, before the foundation of the world was laid my delight was with the sons of men: So it may be made evident, that in all the parts of his sufferings, and in every step thereof, he did most exactly, and also…

To clear it further, we may take the words as alluding to several similitudes. As, 1. To that of hungry and thirsty persons, who are said to be satisfied, when their hunger and thirst are removed, by meat and drink; which implies, that Jesus Christ in His pursuing and performing…

4. It imports this, that the work which he performs in the redeeming of souls is so acceptable to God, and does so mightily concur, and cooperate to the promoting of his design, that the Lord owns every thing that he performs, as performed by his great ambassador; and by him, wh…

He came to seek and save that which was lost; to bring home the lost sheep on His shoulder; to seek and find the lost coin; to reclaim prodigals (Luke 15). This is His meat and His drink, His work and business; as He Himself says, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me,…

How many have lived a considerable number of years strangers to the advantages that are to be gotten by Him, through their want of knowledge? Therefore (John 4) Christ says to the Samaritan woman, "If you had known who it is that asked it of you, you would have given him drink,…

Other physicians take diseases so early as they can, lest the malice of the disease overcome art; but Christ lets sin of purpose ripen, to the eleventh hour, often to the twelfth hour: He knows his art can overtake and outrun seven devils, most easily. The omnipotency of grace k…

But Christ's word is more than a word. (John 4:10) Jesus said, if you knew that gift of God, and who it is that says to you, give me drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. (Psalm 119:33) Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I sha…

1. Because Christ Redeemer is a relative person, there is a full redemption in Christ, but not for Christ, but that he might make over that redemption to his poor brethren; there is a purchased salvation in Christ, not to lie by him like a treasure of silver rusted through not u…

2. And as this is ground why there is no sufficiency in the creature to give us the life of our justification; so it is also taken from the root of our sanctification and consolation, for they spring both from one fountain, and that is the Spirit of God's grace (John 16:7). He i…

Fifthly, the last act of the life of sanctification is the begetting of the like, and propagating according to their kind; it is the nature both of spiritual and natural life, it propagates its kind, though at the first it may be weak, yet it grows to that temper by which it may…

When Elisha was in a little village, not able to defend him from the Syrians, he had chariots and horsemen of fire to defend him (2 Kings 6:17); but when he was in Samaria, a strong walled town, and the king of Israel sent to fetch his head, he said to those that were with him,…