John 4:11-12 The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then have you that living water?… I. It is the property of natural men to take up spiritual things in a carnal way, and they are not able to discern grace till they have it; for, so doth this woman understand Christ, as if He were speaking of elementary water. II. We are naturally enemies to our own good, for she reasons against this living water, as, in her judgment, impossible to be had or given. III. We are also naturally so addicted to our own carnal sense, that we will believe nothing revealed by Christ further than we can see a reason or outward appearance for it; for she judged it impossible He could have living water, seeing He could not draw it out of that well, nor show a better. IV. A chief deceiving principle, making men careless of truth and grace, is their pretence of antiquity and succession unto it, and their descent from religious progenitors; for she boasted Jacob was their father, who gave the well, and therefore slighted the offer of a better, as being well enough in her own conceit. V. None are so ready to boast of antiquity and of interest in pious progenitors as those who have least cause so to do; for they were but heathens who had come in the room of Jacob's children, who had forfeited their right; and they were far from Jacob's spirit, who would satisfy their soul with that which only supplied his bodily necessity, and served his cattle as well as him. VI. It is a notable injury done unto Christ to plead any antiquity or succession to it, in prejudice of Him or His truth, or to cry up any above Him; for it was her fault to cry up Jacob, and her interest in him, that she might slight Him and His offer: "Art thou greater than our father Jacob?" etc. VII. Sobriety and a simple way of living. It is a notable ornament to grace in the godly; when nature, which is con. tent with little, is not overcharged with creatures, to the dishonour of God, abuse of the creatures, and prejudice of men's better state; and when men by their carriage declare that their bodies and flesh is not their best part, which they care most for, so much doth Jacob's practice teach us. (G. Hutcheson.) Parallel Verses KJV: The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? |
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