SERM. of Sichem, unto the Plain of Moreh; that VI. here the Ifraelites laid the Bones of the Patriarch Jofeph; this City Jeroboam fortified, and made it the Seat of his Kingdom, when the ten Tribes revolted from Rehoboam. Near this Place was Jacob's Well, where our Saviour, tired with his Journey, fat down, expecting that fome Body fhould come to draw Water, that he might get fome to quench his Thirst; for, John iv.6. as we are told, it was about the fixth Hour,

ib. 7.

ib. 9.

that is, according to our Computation, twelve o' Clock: The firft that came, was a Woman of Samaria, of whom our Saviour defires the Courtesy of a Draught of Water; the Woman knowing him to be a few, either probably by his Habit or Manner of Speech, wonders at his Request, that he, who was a Jew, fhould either defire or expect any Kind of friendly Office from a Samaritan, between whom and the Jews there were the greatest Fewds and Hatred imaginable; infomuch that they did not maintain any civil Correfpondence one with the other: And therefore the replies, How is it that thou, being a Jew, afkeft Drink of me, who am a Woman of Samaria ? Our Saviour takes this Occafion to let her know, that, though he was a few,

he

he was none of the common Sort, both SERM. by reproving her for Want of Charity, VI. in refusing him fuch a common Office of Humanity, as the giving a Cup of cold Water to one who thirsted, and telling her, that he could have requited her Kindness, by bestowing on her fuch living Water, of which whofoever drank, John iv. fhould never thirst more; and, by telling 10. her feveral Things, which no Stranger could know, who was not endowed with the Spirit of Prophecy. The Woman, from hence, being convinced, that our Saviour was a Prophet, proposes to him that Question which was controverted with so much Warmth between the Jews and Samaritans, which was the Place ib. 20. where God's public Worship ought to be performed, Mount Sion, or Mount Gerizim? In Anfwer to which our Saviour hints to her, that Jerufalem was the Place which God had fet a-part to be worshipped in, and that the Samaritans were guilty of Schifm in feparating themselves from the true Church of God; and, finding her attentive to him, and difpofed to receive the Truth, he goes on to inftruct and inform her, that the Time was now come, when the Worship of God fhould no longer be confined

I 3

SERM. confined to a particular Place; when God VI. would no longer require of them the Ceremonies and Inftitutions of the Mofaical Law, which were typical, but those holy Defires and Affections of the Heart, which were reprefented by them; and he gives this Reafon for it, becaufe God is a Spirit, and therefore fuch Worship, as is fpiritual, muft needs be most fuitable and John iv. beft pleafing to him. The Hour cometh,

23.

and now is, when the true Worshippers fhall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; for the Father feeketh fuch to worship him. And then it follows, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in Truth. In my Discourse upon thefe Words,

I. I SHALL ftate the Notion of a Spirit.

II. I SHALL fhew how this Notion of a

Spirit may be applied to God.

III. I SHALL proceed to prove, that God is fuch a Spirit; and then,

IV. SHEW what Inferences do naturally arife from the Belief of this Truth.

I. I SHALL endeavour to give you the beft Account I can what a Spirit is.

Now

Now the Knowledge of a Spirit is only SERM, attainable these two Ways,

1. By abstracting and taking away those Properties which are effential to a Body. And,

2. By confidering what Operations we find in the World, which exceed the Power of a material Being, and from hence forming our Conjectures of the Nature of that Principle from whence they proceed.

VI.

THE first Way of forming our Notions of a Spirit, is by abftracting or taking away thofe Properties, which are esfential to a Body; and thus a Spirit is frequently described to be an immaterial Substance, or, which is the fame Thing, a Being which has not any Extenfion of Parts; and thus our Saviour describes a Spirit, A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones, Lukexxiv. as you fee me have.

THE fecond Way of framing a Notion of a Spirit, is to confider its Effects and Operations, and from hence to take our Apprehenfions of that Being from whence they flow; for we find many Operations performed, which exceed the Power of any corporeal Agent, and therefore muft proceed from a more powerful and refined Principle, and those are,

I 4

1. Vo

39.

SERM.

I. VOLUNTARY Motion, or a Power VI. of determining its own Motions where and which Way it pleases; it is plain, even by the Experience of our Senfes, that all Bodies move no otherwife than they are moved by fome external Agent, and by those Impreffions which are made on them, from fome other Principle; but we find in ourselves not only a Principle which moves the Body according to its own Will, but which is also the Lord and Mafter of its own Motions. It is not abfolutely guided by Reprefentations taken in by the Senfes, it doth not always accord with those Impreffions made upon the Imagination, nay, it doth not neceffarily follow the laft Dictates of the Understanding; for, as St. Paul tells us, Rom. vii. What I hate, that do I; and it was a good Obfervation of a very ill Man, that, as often as Reafon is against a Man, fo often will the Man be against his Reafon.

15.

2. THE fecond Property of a Spirit is Activity of Motion. All bodily Agents we know are limited to fome determinate Place; they can only be in one Place at the fame Time, and, by Confequence, they can only move one Way ; but we find a Power within us, which

at