Psalms and elsewhere foretelling this So omnes saith the mourning Psalmist videntes me deriserunt me locuti sunt labiis moverunt caput aperuerunt super me os suum sicut Leo rapiens rugiens subsannaverunt me subsannatione frenduerunt super me dentibus suis dilataverunt super me dixerunt Euge Euge. Psal 68.25 Sustinui qui simul contristaretur non fuit qui consolaretur non inveni Psal 108.2 Locuti sunt adversum me lingua dolosa sermonibus odii circumdederunt me and so Psal 30.14 Audivi vituperationem multorum commorantium in circuitu Et ego factus sum opprobrium illis viderunt me moverunt capita sua Where also their very words Mat. 27.43 He trusted in God Let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God are set down Psal 21.9 Speravit in Domino eripiat eum salvum faciat eum quoniam vult eum And so Psal 3.3 Multi dicunt animae meae non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus and so in Wisdom chap. 2.16 Gloriatur patrem se habere Deum videamus ergo si sermones illius veri sine Si enim est verus filius Dei suscipiet illum liberabit illum de manibus contrariorum Contumelia tormento interrogemus eum probemus patientiam illius Morte turpissima condemnemus eum erit enim ei respectus apud Deum ex sermonibus suis i. e. if we may believe his words Thus the Holy Ghost foresaw and foretold these their Blasphemies and whilst such ungrateful treatment added to his anguish the fulfilling these prophesies yeilded him great consolation Thus was he exclamed on by all manner of people sustinuit qui simul contristaretur non fuit by the cheif Priests and Scribes and Elders saith the Evangelist who not satiated with their former cruelties it seems came hither also to see him dy by the common people by the Roman Soldiers acting here the second part of that they had done in the Praetorium to this their mock-king by the Passengers on the high way our Lord being crucified near the road that passed to Shiloh and Gibeon Lastly by the very Thief in the midst of his like torments by all these jeering at his pretensions of being Christ and the King of Israel taking Pilats superscription also for a mock at his making himself the Son of God and his constant faith and trust in him and that since he had so near a relation to God they would fain see now if his God would deliver him jeering at his former good works and Miracles and that since he was so bountiful of them toward others they would fain see him now do one upon himself unpin his nails and descend from the Cross at his vain boasting to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three daies for it seems this for want of worse was spread amongst all the People for his great crime for it was the passengers on the high way that twitted him with it whilst indeed they themselves were now acting that thing he foretold of their destroying the Sacred Temple of his Body that now therefore he should repair his own ruines Ah thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three daies c. jeering at his being Jesus the Saviour of the world that now therefore he should shew it and save himself Such were their scoffings somewhat like Satans former jeers in the Desert whose also these were That since he was Gods Son he should make the Stones there Bread and he should throw himself down from the pinnacle to be held up by Angels and such as those wherewith he usually afflicts the Members of Christ when on their death-bed representing in those their present sufferings their former hope and Faith in God as vain The Thief also hanging by him in the midst of his own like torments could not forbear now despairing of the hopes he had of deliverance by him famous for Miracles but fell also on mocking him and asking him if he were the Christ why he did not save himself and them But the penitent Malefactor on the other hand whose heart God had touched amidst so many blasphemies to Glorify and confess our Lord seeing his silence fell on rebuking his Fellow and asked him if he at least whilst others at liberty said what they pleased had no more fear of God especially being himself in the same sad condemnation and justly for his wicked deeds and so near his End than to fall on railing upon an innocent and just person that had done nothing amiss instead of acknowledging and confessing his own Guilt And this said to his Fellow Theif he with a strong faith beleiving our Lord to be indeed what he was the Christ the Son of God the Saviour of the world the King of Israel began to make his humble Addresses to him and desired that he would remember him when be came into his Kingdom A stupendious faith and divinely inspired now when he saw our Lord upon the very lowest step of his humiliation now when faith perhaps failed his very Apostles Yet there wanted not also some external excitements that might partly raise such a devotion in him to our Blessed Lord as perhaps the great fame of his former Sanctity and Miracles and also many circumstances which he beheld of his passion his divine patience and meekness his compassionate and prophetick speeches to the women of Jerusalem which lamented him his praying for his enemies when they nailed him to his Cross his admirable silence to so many unjust reproaches and particularly to that of his fellow-thief To whom our Lord graciously promised and that with an Amen that he should be remembred and that very day be with him his Lord in the heavenly Paradise appointed for the reception of all blessed Souls till the Resumption of their bodies applying the merits of this his passion to that poor Wretch which first humbly acknowledged his own sins and demerits in saying and we ind edjustly and then confessing our Lord's innocency and personal dignity implored his mercy And thus was the saving of this believing Thief the first fruits as it were of the infinite benefits to mankind of these our Lords sufferings and the early pledg of that eternal mercy which all penitent sinners should receive from him to the worlds end All this while stood first at a greater distance then nearer the Cross as their fears or the Soldiers fierceness or the crowds of people grew less the Holy Virgin the sad Mother of our Lord and the Women our Lords former Attendants that accompanied her among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary of Cleophas our Blessed Lady's sister-in-law her husband being brother or else she sister to Joseph which Mary was the Mother also of James the less and Joses and Simon and Judas that were called our Lord's Brethren i. e. near Kinsmen by the relation they had to Joseph For if
more endeared and enamoured the Lord with her Vertues § 13 And secondly which may seem to make her yet somewhat lower and to take off somewhat from the Lustre of her dearest Jewel a Virginal purity and integrity we find her by the over-ruling of Gods providence and the negociation and importunity of her friends and parents already espoused and made sure to an husband made sure to a righteous and holy man indeed but one also of a low fortune and a poor Trade whereby her condition as it was for the present but mean so neither was it now for the future advancible by a rich or noble marriage so to make more credible to her the Angels news of her high advancement Luk. 1.28 And by Gods forecasting providence was it thus ordered That before she was with child she should have a titular husband First so to sheild the wisdom of God and the honour of the Virgin from the calumnies of men For better for her to be thought abroad in this our Saviours supernatural conception and birth not a pure Virgin then an Harlot and better the Son of God to be thought the son of a Carpenter then illegitimate and spurious Yet which titular Father was to be taken away out of sight before the Son of Gods publication to Israel As may be collected from Jo. 2.2 3 12 where no mention of him Secondly so to provide a foster-Father for the new-born Infant and one that might do the offices of a husband and Master of a family to the Virgin when now made a Mother As likewise thirdly to hide our Saviours divine Original from those who were unworthy to know it who reputed him Josephs son until the accomplishment of his sufferings and the better to conceal him till his manifestation under a mean roofe Meanwhile much humiliation was here both of the most pure and chastly-devoted Virgin to be thought a wife and of her divine Son which she would take to heart more then her own crosses to be esteem'd a Carpenters which was not spared to be often laid in his dish Nor could the perplexed Mother when she was present and heard this from the unbelieving and malicious Jews prudently or safely declare the contrary § 14 Now after the Angel had thus told her in General of her happiness and her low conceit of her self stood amazed at his words he further opens his message to her saying that God would make her the Mother of a king whom she should call by the name of Jesus and that he should be a King eternal over Gods Israel sitting upon the Throne of her Forefather David unchanged any more for ever But here again she instead of feeding her thoughts upon hers or her sons Greatness fixed them rather upon her honesty and the just Guard of her resolved Virginity and modestly enquired how she not knowing a man could have a child for it seems that the Angels speech represented so much to her that Virgin as she was she should also be a Mother whereupon the Angel further instructs her in the manner thereof that she should conceive this child not by man but by God Himself by the Holy Ghost supervening upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her and therefore that her Son should be called his and then the more to confirm his speech and her faith familiarly added that her Cousin Elizabeth tho not a Virgin yet of a long time formerly noted for barren and then also much overaged for children was now six Months gone of such a supernatural conception And now tho many questions the Virgin might further have asked still concerning this miracle of miracles for who can sound the depth of so great a mystery and we see how weak and incredulous in comparison of her the Holy Priest Zachary was for a birth of much less marveil and therefore the Virgins undisputing and ready faith is much taken notice of by the Holy Ghost in the mouth of Elizabeth with a beata annexed to it beata quae crediderit Luk 1.45 and tho many scruples she might have made also concerning what the just Joseph would think and what the world would say Yet here her great prudence stopped all further curiosity and the suggestions of such low fears and she meekly acquiesced in Gods good pleasure answering the Angels High Ecce Mater Domini with her Low ecce Ancilla Domini Fiat mihi secundum Verbum tuum This her ready faith and modest consent and submissive resignation of her self into the hands of God making and compleating this divine espousal instantly upon which followed the Conception of Jesus and this Mother became one whom all Generations should call Blessed Blessed and honoured above all the Creatures of God as they have done unto this day § 15 Soon after this the overjoyed Virgin having heard from the Angel that strange story concerning her Cousin Elizabeth called her Cousin Because tho we find her stiled Luk. 1.5 a daughter of Aaron and is supposed to have an Aaronite for her Father Yet her Mother is said to have bin one of the race of David and Sister to the Mother of the Blessed Virgin As it had bin of a long time usual for the Tribes to intermarry especially that of Levi dispersed in Israel and for such women as had no inheritance So Jehoiada the High Priest married King Ahaziah's sister 2 Chron. 22. And David Sauls daughter a Benjamite I say the Blessed Virgin having heard this strange and joyful news of her Cousin Elizabeth and having this as it were given her for a sign of the truth of these things which should happen to her self being now acted by the Holy Ghost to do extraordinary matters and filled with a courage unusual to a Maid undertook all on the suddain and before any cohabitation with her espoused husband Joseph as appears in Matt. 1.18 a very long journy to a place far remote from her own habitation and Friends some 70 or 80 miles thro some part of it an hilly and difficult way quite Cross Palestine Luk. 1.39 to give her Cousin Elizabeth a visit To confer with her about spiritual affairs to congratulate with her for the great favours God had done unto her and to joine with her in his praises But chiefly such a remote journey at this time presently upon her Conception of our Lord seems to be undertaken and so long a stay also there by the special Divine Providence that there might be no cohabitation nor matrimonial correspondence or commerce with Joseph her Husband therefore the Angels visit seems also to have bin presently after the Espousals till she was first apparently with child which commerce Her great wisdom purposely declined that nothing might be seen that might resemble any carnal or conjugal satisfaction She departing saith the Text not without some Mortification to herself cum festinatione Luk. 1.39 And therefore after so long a stay abroad till she began now to be apparently with child to
an husband and now aged 84 years departed not from the Temple where many chambers belonging to it we may imagine she might have some little Cell for her self and her necessary provision brought to her thither and beside her Devotions might do some little services more proper for women in assistance of the Priests And some such thing of women serving and attending on the Tabernacle we read in Exod. 38.8 and again in 1 Sam. 2.22 And after the settlement of the Gospel in 1 Tim. 5. is mentioned such a sequestration and retirement of widows living together and taken care-of for their maintenance by the Church for the peculiar service of God and his Saints Where vers 5. it is said of these also that Desolate and trusting in God to whom they dedicated their continency and service for their subsistence they continued in supplications and praiers night and day So From the Temple this Holy widow saith the Evangelist departed not but served God there with fastings and praiers night and day With fastings as this being the best preservative of chastity and preparative for Devotion by allaying and calming the Spirits and Passions and mortifying and taming the flesh The chief subject of whose Devotions as of Simeons probably were the Redemption of God's people by his sending quickly the promised Messias then much spoken of She then at this blessed sight and the fulfilling of it first fell on praising and giving thanks to God and witnessed the same things with Simeon her coming also casually after him removing the suspition of any combination concerning this Heavenly child to all there present nor only to them but to all those pious people in Jerusalem that resorted to her and expected also this Redemption Luk. 2.38 which by her eminent sanctity and her being noted also for the gift of Prophecy must make no small noise in the City after the Magi had spread this news there before by their solicitous inquisition after this new-born King § 81 This that passed so publickly in the Temple after King Herod's long expectation of the return of the Magi supposing them perhaps to have travailed further to see the Country or that disappointed of their expectation out of shame they had secretly with-drawn themselves from a publick derision soon gave him a new alarm and so quickned his bloody intention of destroying the Holy Infant Meanwhile these holy rites devoutly performed and such praises and acclamations received at Jerusalem as were before at Bethleem the Holy Mother treasuring up all these things in her heart and Holy Simeons last words bodeing great afflictions as well as the first returned with her husband S. Joseph the same day to Bethleem For an immediate return of them from Jerusalem to Nazareth which some imagine seems not so well to sute with the following story of their being sent away into Egypt For at Nazareth they being so far removed from Bethleem their stay seems to have been secure enough or their flight from thence would rather have bin directed North-wards to some part of Syria near hand than Southwards into Egypt as beating again the way they came thro all their Country first and flying from Herod just the way toward him § 82 To Bethleem then they returned for ordering some little matters there or also giving their little one some repose but purposing a return to Nazareth with all convenient speed and with great apprehensions of the Consolations they should have in shewing to her parents and kindred her new-born Son and in providing for his better accomodation as also in the recounting to them the many strange things of her journey when behold they had no sooner after a weary journey setled themselves and the Infant to take some rest but that the Angel probably that very night appeared to Joseph and commanded him immediatly to take the young Child and his Mother for so it is observed the Angel in reverence stiles her v. 13. and again v. 20. and not his wife and to secure him by a speedy flight from that place for that Herod sought immediatly to slay him and this a flight not to some neighbouring Village or to his own Country Galilee but quite contrary still removed further from home and friends into Egypt a country of above 200 miles distance through a vast Desart in a cold season with a Child only six weeks old after a wearisome travel of it and them the day before unto a people of another language left also uncertain how long their stay which was to be so long as Herod lived Where what tolerable entertainment could they expect when they had received such mean accomodation among their friends and kindred Such was Gods command to Abraham and his obedience Gen. 12.1 but he much better provided and attended § 83 The Holy Man without replying or disputing why not Galilee thought a place remote enough or why not God take away Herods life to save his Sons He rose immediatly and departed by night without any conscious thereof their poverty being free from encombrances taking Jesus their treasure with him He and the Mother to whom he had communicated the Angels message being perfectly resigned and full of confidence in God and she also instead of disswading animating and hastening him thereto And the same resignation was also in the little Jesus to the will of his Father now engaged in a greater suffering than that of the Straw and Cratch or yesterdaies travel to Jerusalem smiling upon them in the midst of their cares concerning him and already beginning to fulfil the prophecies that were written of him A type of whom was that of Israel called also Gods first-born Exod. 4.22 and of whom he saith Hose 11.1 when Israel was a child then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt in its first child-hood being by the Divine appointment carried into Egypt for its Education and brought thence with a strong hand after that Pharaoh was destroyed as our Lord was after Herod which Pharaoh also as Herod had appointed that all the Male-children of Israel so soon as born should be slain thinking thus to have destroyed Gods first-born Israel § 84 Our Little Lord rejoyced also at his going now as it were to take possession of his promised Psal 2.8 inheritance of the Gentiles to whom he brought salvation as well as to the Jews And as in Bethleem he had already received the Homage of the East so now he went himself in person to this Southern Region to establish his new Kingdome there where was at that time the very throne and seat of Satan and which was the chief Mother of Idolatry and Superstition in the whole Gentile world and the Source where the rest of the Western and Northern parts learnt and whence they derived it But again which after this gracious visit of his and by his Redemption its being subdued to the Gospel became no less exemplaplary to the rest of the Christian world in an extraordinary Sanctity
to which the Pharisees also were not wanting to give their assistance in representing John the Author of a new Sect and acting without and against authority which though this crafty man knew to be envy in them yet he made use of this colour to cover the true Cause of this imprisonment and therefore this reason thereof is given by Josephus Antiq Judaici l. 18. c. 12. Veritus saith he cum ad audiendum cum quamplurima multitudo concurreret ne forte doctrinae ejus persuasione populi a suo regno discederent c. and our Lord also intimates the Pharisees and Governours of the Jews to have had a hand in this restraint Mat. 17.12 where he saith that they knew him not but did to him whatever they listed as they should afterward do to himself Thus cast in prison Herodias not appeased or secured herewith next solicits Herod also for the speedy taking away his life but both the fear of the people esteeming John a Prophet and his own reverence of him as yet with-held him from it For which cause also in prison he laying the blame thereof upon his wife indulged him so much liberty as to have some converse with his friends and his Disciples there to come to and attend upon him and so neither here as also afterward S. Paul was he an useless servant to our Lord. § 195 Leaving the Baptist now a Prisoner and an end put to his publick preaching after that our Lord was sufficiently manifested to the people of Israel and begun to be assisted in his work by other new Disciples let us return to our Lord. He had now continued preaching and baptizing in Judea after the Paschal Feast for about some eight Months for when removing hence he came into Samaria it is said Jo. 4.35 that it wanted but foure months to the next harvest and so to the next Pasch which Feast was celebrated at the beginning of the harvest at which time was offered a sheaf of the first fruits of their Corn Lev. 23.10 Deut. 16.9 as at Pentecost the first loaf of bread after Harvest gotten in between these two feasts In this time our Lord converting to the Gospel and faith in him as the Saviour of the world and so baptizing by his Disciples such multitudes of people far beyond the actings of John and this so near to Jerusalem had already alarm'd the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews and more and more incensed their wrath against him who could not rest from devising some way for his death or restraint especially after they had bin so succesful against the Baptist and we find afterward in Jo. 7.1 the reason more plainly given of our Lords residing no more in Judea but in Galilee because the Jews i. e these chief Governours and Leaders of them sought already to kill him By which we see also that our Lord for most of his time after he appeared once went in great danger of his life for in flying from the Pharisees in Judea in Galilee also there was an Herod Therefore Our Lord saith S. John Jo. 4.1 knowing the Pharisees had heard of his making and baptizing more disciples than John Matt. 4.12 and having heard also the severity used toward the Baptist purposed to leave Judea and return into Galilee so to decline for the present the evil designs of the Pharisees a gainst him and also to carry the light or the Gospel into those remoter places where it had not yet appeared and where John was interrupted in his Ministery For though Herod lived in the same quarters yet was he by the Divine providence so diverted by other affairs and especially the new dissentions between him and Aretas and his mind also so much afflicted with the unjust imprisonment of John as that he had little inclination to persecute any more Prophets and when at last after his murthering of John our Lords same from every side sounded in his ears his guilt presently imagined him John reviv'd and so rendred him less inquisitive after matters that would little redound to his Honour § 196 Our Lord thus removing with his Disciples out of Judea into Galilee came in his way hither to a City of Samaria situate in Mount Ephraim called Sychar but the same with the Ancient Schechem or Sychem of which see Gen. 33.18 c. the place where Jacob returning into Palestine from Laban purchased a field of the Children of Hamor Father to Sechem that afterward defloured Dinah and there first erected an Altar probably on Mount Garizim or Ebal since Altars used to be erected on the most eminent places and nearest to Heaven being two tops of the same Hill near one another where also viz. on Mount Ebal God commanded the Israelites that soon after their entrance into Canaan they should erect an Altar See Deut. 27 4. c. and Josh 8.30 c. and also should set up some great Stones on which plaistered over should be written the law and also on these two tops of the Hill one o're against another that there should be solemnly pronounced by the Levites the Benedictions and Curses the people saying Amen Which twelve Curses are there set down the matter of Benedictions being supposed to be the observing the Contrary to these Maledictions of which see more in Deut. 28. Hereabouts also and perhaps in the same place Abraham at his first entrance into Canaan upon Gods appearing to him in that place built an Altar see Gen. 12.6 7. At this place also Joshua assembled Israel before his Death and made a Covenant with them before the Lord c. See Josh 24.1 26. And this Hill Garizim was so near to this City that Jotham is said from the top or side of it to have spoken to the Sychemites Judg. 9.7 and the Samaritan woman calls it this Hill Jo. 4.20 as a place very near to her This City also was the first place as it were for a preludium taken possession of by armes by the seed of Abraham the Sons of Jacob in revenge for dishonouring their Sister Of which see what Jacob saith Gen. 48.22 Afterward being destroyed by Abimeleck Judg. 9.45 it was reedifyed by Jeroboam and made his regal seat Antiq. l. 11. cap. 7.8 and so it was saith Josephus in Sanballats time a Gentile Governour of Samaria under Darius Whose daughter being married to Manasses a Son of the High Priest and he for it ejected out of the Priesthood Sanballet calling him into Samaria by Alexander the Great 's leave who had then conquered those Provinces built a Temple for the worship of the God of Israel on Mount Garizim in emulation of that of Jerusalem in the rebullding of which the Samaritans before had offered their concurrence but was rejected Ezra 4.2 3. wherein Manasses his Son-in-law should officiate This was done some three hundred years before our Lords Incarnation which occasioned a Schism between the Samaritans and the Jews like to that former of Jeroboam Part
of these Samaritans being Israelites and many Jews also when obnoxious to the Laws or for some other secular advantages removing thither out of Judea After which times also another Anti-Temple about one hundred and fifty years before our Lords coming was erected in Egypt for the Jews flying together with Onias a Son of the High Priest when as persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes which Temple perished as also the other near the time of the destruction of that in Jerusalem and both these forraign Temples seem preludiums of Gods worship shortly to be made common to the whole world This is premised for the better understanding of what follows § 197 Near to this City Sychem and this Mount was a Well digged by Jacob and then made use of by the City And here our Lord travelling on foot and wearied with his mornings journey it being now about noon and the heat of the day sat down on the side of the Well to rest himself it as a place of resort likely having some Trees and shade about it whilst the Disciples went into the Town to buy some meat for his and their dinner For the Jews had no commerce or conversation with the Samaritans when absolute necessity did not require it as this of travellers buying victuals of them so as to ear and drink and lodg with them being accounted by them Schismaticks and unclean which caused also the same enmity against and separation of the Samaritans at least some of them from the Jews see Luk. 9.53 the other Samaritans seem herein more remiss see vers 56. Whilst our Lord was here left alone a Samaritan woman came thither out of the City to draw water This happened also to be a woman that had had already five husbands either all already deceased or she by divorce separated from them for in latter times women also used to procure divorces from their husbands and that now lived incontinently with one not married to her § 198 Our Lord thirsty with his journey and desiring to entertain some further spiritual discourse with her concerning the salvation of this poor wretch requested of her some water to drink upon which she somewhat wondring asked him why he as appearing by his habit and perhaps his speech a Jew would receive water from her and out of her vessel being a Samaritan and one also it seems that for all the impurity of her life was a Zelot of the Samaritan Religion and way of Gods worship and of their separation from the Jews Here-upon our Lord moved with compassion took occasion to preach the new Gospel and to reveil himself to her and turning the mention of water with a Metaphor and to enter without force or abruption into pious discourse as usually and as we find he doth by and by concerning meat and again concerning harvest told her that he was a person from whom she might expect a greater curtesy and that if she had well known the Gift of God and who he was she would have begged water of him rather the true water quenching all thirst and in the receiving of it a Well continually abounding i. e springing up in all spiritual Graces to everlasting life conferred by it Our Lord here speaking as formerly in his discourse with Nicodemus of the Gift of the Holy Spirit which he came to bestow upon the world and which his Death procured of the Father which being conferred in our regeneration by the water of baptism cures all hunger and thirst after earthly things and fully satisfies and beatifies the Soul Consider Jo. 7.38 39. 6.35 Esai 44.3 § 199 The woman saying she should be glad to receive such water Our Lord the more to encrease her faith in him bad her to call her husband as if it were meet that he also with his wife should share thereof thus taking occasion to discover to her his knowledg of all her former life and condition and for the present of her living in secret concubinage She hereby discerning him to be a Prophet and perhaps to divert him from speaking more of her husband presently begun to consult him concerning Religion who in the present division were in the right the Samaritans or the Jews and where God was more acceptably worshipped in Mount Garizim where the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob and afterward Joshua by Gods appointment and their fore-fathers that came out of Egypt built an Altar and offered Sacrifices as hath bin said or at Jerusalem a place of a latter consecration and sanctity the Samaritans also rejecting any testimonies produced out of the Prophets against them and see the vehement contest and dispute of the Samaritans and Jews that had bin before this in Alexandria before Ptolemeus Philometer made Judge in a cause Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 4. § 200 Our Lord after he had first told her that the Samaritans not Jews for the time past were peccant and schismatical herein and the right way of salvation to be among the Jews and so also the Salvation through the Gospel first to be communicated to them proceeds to instruct her concerning the times of the Gospel now at hand wherein all such former Divisions and factions concerning the place of worship should be taken away that God was a Spirit not addicted or confined to Place nor taken with corporeal things and external Ceremonies but only as these were types and prefigurations of spiritual things to come and of his real service by and through Christ but that he expected those now who should worship him in what place soever in spirit and in truth intimating here the abrogation from henceforth of the former legal worship and Ceremonies which was accordingly established by the Apostles Act. 15. a thing that at this time the Samaritans would more willingly hear of than the Jews And he speaks also here to her of worshipping not God in general but the Father the true worshippers will worship the Father For that all worship of God now was to be through Christ his Son and by such as were also made his Sons through Christ Worshipping God also in Spirit seems to be the worship of him in and by the Holy Spirit given through Christ according to those expressions of our Lord to Nicodemus before Jo. 3.6 that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and Mat. 22.43 David in Spirit called him Lord. And of S. Paul whom I serve in the Spirit Rom. 1.9 and Rom. 8.14 those who are led by the Spirit and vers 9. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit § 201 The woman upon our Lords saying the Hour cometh c. replyed that she believed when the Messias should come he would declare all Gods pleasure concerning his worship and remove all the present differences Our Lord told her that himself was the Messias She hearing this and much transported with his former discourse whose words were with authority and setting hearts on fire and bidden also by him to call her husband carelesly leaving