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SERMONS 
 
 HEARING THE WORD PREACHED. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDREW THOMSON, D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF ST. GEORGE^ CHURCH, EDINBURGH. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED FOR WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO. 
 12, st. Andrew's street, and 13, george's street ; 
 
 LONGMAN AND CO. LONDON ; AND CHALMERS 
 AND COLLINS, GLASGOW. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXV. 
 
PRINTED BY A BALFOUR AND CO. EDINBURGH. 
 
TO THE 
 
 CONGREGATION OF ST. GEORGE'S, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING SERMONS 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR AFFECTIONATE PASTOR, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 luke viii. 18. 
 " Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.*' 
 
 The preaching of the gospel is an ap- 
 pointed means of spiritual improvement 
 and of eternal salvation. It is calcu- 
 lated, in its own nature, to promote 
 these ends. Being of divine institution, 
 we may reasonably expect the divine 
 blessing to attend it. And of its use- 
 fulness, and its efficacy, the church has 
 had experience in every age. 
 
 B 
 
S SERMON I. 
 
 Yet it cannot be denied that there 
 are many who seem to derive, from the 
 preaching of the word, no advantage 
 whatever, and many more to whom it 
 is not profitable in any tolerable or ade- 
 quate degree. They do not absolutely 
 neglect it; it is, perhaps, one of the ordi- 
 nances on which they regularly attend ; 
 and, judging by appearances, w r e should 
 conclude that they find it both pleasing 
 and beneficial. But when we look for 
 its genuine effects on their temper, and 
 their conversation, and their conduct, 
 we are disappointed. We discover 
 little or nothing of what we were led 
 and entitled to anticipate. " The word 
 preached has not profited them." They 
 do not " bring forth its fruits with pa- 
 tience," and " to perfection." 
 
 There may be several circumstances 
 which account for this want of corre- 
 
SERMON I. 5 
 
 spondence between their privilege and 
 their character. But the one which 
 appears to operate most generally, most 
 powerfully, and most injuriously, is to 
 be found in the manner in which they 
 hear the gospel that is preached to them. 
 Upon this a great deal must necessarily 
 depend. It is in religion as it is in the 
 natural world. A means may be per- 
 fectly adapted in its own nature and 
 tendency to a particular end, but unless 
 it be properly treated, and properly 
 applied, its end cannot be fully and cor- 
 rectly accomplished ; and there may be 
 such defects in the treatment and appli- 
 cation of it, as to render it altogether 
 ineffectual and useless. If the ground 
 be not sufficiently prepared, the best 
 seed that can be sown upon it will afford 
 but a scanty produce. So also, if you 
 do not listen to the w T ord in a becoming 
 
4 SERMON I. 
 
 manner, you cannot possibly reap from 
 it those substantial benefits which it is 
 otherwise fitted and intended to con- 
 vey. Day after day, and sabbath after 
 sabbath, you may sit here, and have the 
 gospel delivered to you ; the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ may be displayed 
 to you in all their glory; life and death, 
 happiness and misery, heaven and hell, 
 may be set before you, with all the sub- 
 jects on which your eternal condition 
 hinges, and with all the circumstances 
 which can magnify their importance or 
 increase their influence ; and yet, if your 
 minds are not duly predisposed for the 
 reception of the truths communicated, 
 and if these truths are not heard and 
 received in a suitable way, they will 
 impart to you neither comfort nor edi- 
 ficatio n. They will be like seed scatter- 
 ed upon the rocks, amongst the thorns, 
 
SERMON L 6 
 
 and by the way side, which is speedily 
 consumed by the drought, or devoured 
 by the fowls of heaven. 
 
 I am quite aware, that another cause 
 may be assigned for the evil in question. 
 It may be traced to some deficiency in 
 the mode of preaching — to some want of 
 sincerity, or of skill, or of earnestness, 
 on the part of those who minister in 
 word and doctrine. And, indeed, if 
 the opinion of hearers in general is to 
 be deduced from their language, it is 
 to this source, and to no other, that 
 we are to ascribe the inadequate pro- 
 gress which they make in the know- 
 ledge and practice of religion. Nor do 
 we altogether deny the accuracy of their 
 statement. We are conscious of many 
 faults and imperfections in preachers 
 of the gospel. We would confess them 
 with candour before you, and with hu- 
 
6 SERMON I. 
 
 mility before God. And we pray, and 
 it becomes our people to unite with us in 
 praying, that divine grace may be given 
 to render us more wise and more faith- 
 ful — to make us as " workmen who 
 need not be ashamed, rightly dividing 
 the word of truth." 
 
 But whatever blame may be attached 
 to those who speak, it is at least as ob- 
 vious that the fault lies with those who 
 hear. If the message of salvation which 
 we bring were to meet with no impe- 
 diments and obstructions in its way to 
 your understandings or your hearts, 
 the disadvantages under which it la- 
 bours from our errors and from our 
 weaknesses would be little felt as to its 
 spiritual efficacy, and we should ob- 
 serve among professing Christians far 
 more of the practical excellence of pure 
 and undefiled religion, as well as far 
 
SERMON I. 7 
 
 more extensive and correct views of the 
 gospel scheme. It is in express refer- 
 ence to this fact that our Saviour de- 
 livered the instructive parable of the 
 Sower. And he is just following up 
 the lessons which that parable is in- 
 tended to teach, when he gives the con- 
 cise but emphatic exhortation in the 
 text — " Take heed, therefore, how ye 
 hear." Men are apt to be careless on 
 this point, and to imagine, that if they 
 only be present when the counsel of 
 God is declared, it is of no great con- 
 sequence what their spirit and beha- 
 viour be. They are, therefore, called 
 upon to " take heed" — to be upon their 
 guard — to beware of acting unsuitably 
 to the circumstances in which they are 
 placed — to put away from them every 
 thing which might prove a hindrance to 
 their full comprehension and their cor- 
 
8 SERMON I. 
 
 dial reception of the truth as it is in 
 Jesus — to be anxious, not only that they 
 attend where the pure word is preach- 
 ed, but also that they do not render 
 their attendance there, unavailing to 
 their growth in grace, by the unsCrip- 
 tural and unbecoming manner in which 
 it is given. 
 
 Permit me, then, to illustrate and en- 
 force the admonition of our Saviour, 
 by pointing out the way in which pro- 
 fessing Christians too frequently hear 
 the word, and warning them against the 
 errors w T hich they thus commit in the 
 discharge of a most important duty— 
 in the enjoyment of a most valuable 
 privilege. 
 
 I. We observe, in the first place, 
 that there are some who hear with in- 
 difference. 
 
SERMON I. 9 
 
 Not only are these persons not affect- 
 ed by the preaching of the Gospel in 
 a degree proportioned to its vast and 
 paramount importance ; they are not 
 more affected by it than by any 
 thing else which solicits their regard ; 
 and perhaps it may be truly asserted 
 of them in many instances, that they 
 are not affected by it at all. They come 
 to church with tolerable regularity ; 
 here they are, they probably know not 
 why ; we happen to preach on one sub- 
 ject or another for a longer or a short- 
 er time, and they will sit it out as a 
 matter of decency or as a matter of ha- 
 bit ; but as to taking any direct or 
 lively interest in the truths which are 
 delivered, — that is an attainment which, 
 so far from having made, they do not 
 appear ever to think of aspiring to. It 
 is of little or no consequence what be 
 
10 SERMON I, 
 
 the nature of the topics we are discus- 
 sing. The callousness of their dispo- 
 sition has a levelling influence, which 
 makes them all alike. Whether we 
 speak of the mercy or of the justice of 
 God ; of the miracles, or of the suffer- 
 ings of the Saviour ; of the grace of the 
 Gospel, or of the precepts of the law ; 
 of the joys of heaven, or of the pun- 
 ishment of hell ; whatever be the theme 
 on which we descant, it makes no dis- 
 tinct impression on their minds — they 
 hear it as if they heard it not. And 
 they go away just as little moved, and 
 just as little touched in their principles, 
 their affections, and their views, as if 
 there were no revelation from heaven 
 addressed to them, or as if they had no 
 soul to be enlightened by its discover- 
 ies and redeemed by its grace. 
 
 This does not proceed, you will ot>- 
 
SERMON I. 11 
 
 serve, from constitutional apathy. They 
 do not exhibit the same listlessness 
 with regard to every thing else, which 
 might show it to be a sort of radical 
 disease, and render them more the ob- 
 jects of pity than of censure. Nay, we 
 may go still farther and say, that it 
 characterises them in no other respect, 
 and that in every thing except what is 
 sacred and divine, they are as much 
 alive as the most lively and active of us 
 all. Speak to them about the concerns 
 of a present world ; about the pursuits 
 of its men of business, and the amuse- 
 ments which occupy its fashionable cir- 
 cles ; about its politics, and its conten- 
 tions, and its commerce ; about the ex- 
 ploits of its military heroes, and the 
 schemes of its national rulers, and the 
 fortunes of its numerous and diversi- 
 fied populations : about the discoveries 
 of science, and the improvements of 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 art, and the productions of taste and 
 fancy, by which it is civilized and glad- 
 dened ; speak to them of the meanest 
 event which happens on its surface, or 
 of the veriest trifle which flutters for 
 the moment in its atmosphere ; speak 
 to them of these things, and you imme- 
 diately call into exercise the faculties 
 of their understanding and the suscep- 
 tibilities of their heart ; they attend to 
 what you say as something that con- 
 cerned them, and they reason and de- 
 cide, and hope and fear, and desire 
 and deprecate, and love and hate, with 
 all the emotion of living, moral, and 
 intellectual beings. But let them be 
 brought within hearing of the minister 
 of religion; let him deliver to them 
 the message of the Gospel ; let him 
 speak to them of God, aad Christ, and 
 salvation, and eternity ; let him be as 
 faithful as he can, and announce to 
 
SERMON I. 13 
 
 them the terrors of the Lord and the 
 mercies of the Redeemer ; — and then, 
 they become as dull and unconcerned 
 as if there were no truth and no im- 
 portance whatever in what is said to 
 them; their minds which, when they 
 entered the house. of God, were inter- 
 ested about all that was passing upon 
 this vain and fleeting earth, are divest- 
 ed, as it were, of feeling, when called 
 to the contemplation of what is passing 
 in the heavens ; and, as if their nature 
 had undergone a change, objects of in- 
 finite moment cease to awaken one ani- 
 mated movement, and, like the sensi- 
 tive plant, they shrink from the first 
 and slightest touch of Christianity, in- 
 to all the torpidity and the lifelessness 
 of indifference. 
 
 O my friends, this is a very melan- 
 choly, because it is at once a most dan- 
 c 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 gerous and a most unmanageable state 
 of mind. It is worse, in all essential 
 respects, even than that of the infidel. 
 He who is an infidel on what is called 
 principle, will feel concerned in an ar- 
 gument which attacks the system he 
 has adopted, or which supports the sys- 
 tem that he opposes. The passions 
 which have perverted his judgment may 
 be differently directed, and made to 
 operate in favour of what he has hi- 
 therto excluded from his belief. He 
 may, without great difficulty, be tempt- 
 ed into the field of battle, and there, 
 by skilful management, he may be con- 
 quered, and subdued, and brought in- 
 to captivity to the obedience of Christ. 
 But the man who is cased in the ar- 
 mour of indifference is almost beyond 
 our reach. We cannot prevail upon 
 him to grapple with us. He never 
 
SERMON I. U 
 
 lays open one avenue to his soul. He 
 will not once come abroad from his 
 stronghold, and give us the chance of 
 victory. He will not for a moment lay 
 aside the impenetrable shield with 
 which he has covered himself. We 
 cannot quicken his understanding into 
 activity by our acutest reasonings, nor 
 rouse his heart into feeling by our most 
 pathetic expostulations. After having 
 exhausted all the weapons of our spi- 
 ritual warfare, — after having poured up- 
 on him every arrow of conviction with 
 which the word has furnished us, — af- 
 ter having addressed ourselves to the 
 most powerful principles and tenden- 
 cies of his nature, we are as far from 
 our object as ever, — he is still unmov- 
 ed — still indifferent — and still, like 
 Gallio of old, he lives secure, and 
 " cares for none of these things." 
 
16 SERMON I. 
 
 And is the case of such men utterly 
 hopeless ? And is it in vain that we ex- 
 hort them to take heed how they hear ? 
 We have not, indeed, great or flatter- 
 ing prospect of success; but " all things 
 are possible with God ;" his " word is 
 quick and powerful;" and depending 
 upon the efficacy of his grace, we must 
 not neglect to use the means, nor de- 
 spair of producing some effect even on 
 the most careless and indifferent. O 
 my friends, if there be any of you who 
 have any consciousness, or any suspi- 
 cion that you are labouring under this 
 insensibility to the preaching of the 
 gospel, let me proclaim to you that 
 your condition is full of peril ; that 
 though you may not care about the 
 gospel which we address to you, still it 
 is infinitely worthy of all the attention 
 that you can pay, and of all the con- 
 
SERMON I, 17 
 
 cern that you can feel ; that no un- 
 mindfulness of yours can change its 
 truth, or retard its progress, or pre- 
 vent it from issuing in the condemna- 
 tion of those who neglect it ; that while 
 you slumber on, heedless and dead to 
 the warnings which are given, the 
 storm is increasing around you, and 
 your vessel is about to be dashed upon 
 the rock of perdition ; that the period 
 cannot be far distant when the stroke of 
 death shall rouse you to consideration, 
 but too late, perhaps, for you to work 
 out your deliverance ; and that, there- 
 fore, it is high time you should " awake 
 out of sleep," and " mind the things 
 which belong to your eternal peace." 
 "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise 
 and call upon thy God." Listen to his 
 voice, which speaks to you in the lan- 
 guage of authority and mercy, and no 
 
18 SERMON I. 
 
 longer harden your hearts against him, 
 as if you either needed not his instruc- 
 tion, or as if you had nothing at all to 
 do with it. The word to which you 
 have been hitherto turning a deaf ear 
 is still addressed to you; it calls you 
 to serious thought, to lively affection, 
 and to diligent service; and I would 
 once more exhort you to take heed how 
 you hear it ; that you put away from 
 you that listlessness and insensibility 
 which heretofore have made it but a 
 dead letter, and that you yield your souls 
 willingly to all its interesting truths, and 
 to all its holy impressions — to all its 
 offers of grace, and to all its promises 
 and anticipations of glory. 
 
 But some will, no doubt, be think- 
 ing that the exhortation in this view, 
 and in this latitude, does not apply to 
 them ; and they bless themselves per- 
 
SERMON I. 19 
 
 haps, and thank God that they are not 
 quite so bad as the individuals whom 
 we have described. And I trust, my 
 friends, that there are but few of those 
 now present whose conduct, as hearers 
 of the word, can be justly delineated in 
 such strong and glaring colours. Still, 
 however, there may be many who, 
 though not involved in the extreme 
 case that has been stated, are yet im- 
 plicated to a certain extent, and re- 
 quire the admonition of the text for 
 their reproof and correction. You may 
 not be altogetlier indifferent, but you 
 may be indifferent in some measure; 
 and there may be as many various de- 
 grees in the scale of this evil quality, 
 as there are persons who are capable 
 of possessing it. And, therefore, it be- 
 comes you to consider whether you are 
 indifferent at all ; and if so, to " take 
 heed in this respect how ye hear," 
 
*0 SERMON I. 
 
 Now, you may ascertain this point by 
 thinking of the absolute and incalcul- 
 able importance of that revelation of 
 the grace and will of God which is 
 preached to you, and then judging 
 if you feel any thing approaching a 
 proportionate interest, or pay any 
 thing like an adequate attention, when 
 it is communicated to you in our mi- 
 nistrations. You may also ascertain 
 the point, by reflecting with yourselves 
 whether you do not experience greater 
 concern, and livelier emotions, and 
 more intensity of thought, when sec- 
 ular objects are presented to your re- 
 gard, than you experience when you 
 are called upon to listen to the doc- 
 trines and the precepts of. Christianity, 
 which relate to the welfare of your im- 
 mortal spirits. Be assured that if the 
 infinitely momentous truths of the gos- 
 
SERMON I. 21 
 
 pel are heard with nothing more than 
 ordinary feelings, or if they are heard 
 just as you would hear about your tem- 
 poral interests, then you are hearing 
 them with indifference. And this not 
 only indicates a state of mind in which 
 religion does not occupy its proper 
 place, but it tends to cherish and con- 
 firm the error in which it originates, 
 and will prevent you from receiving that 
 instruction, and from making that im- 
 provement, which the preaching of the 
 word is intended to secure. Study then, 
 to have deep convictions of the truth 
 and importance of the gospel. Re- 
 member that it is God the Lord who 
 speaks to you ; that his communication 
 respects your everlasting welfare ; and 
 that the word which he addresses to you 
 must finally prove " either the savour 
 of life unto life, or the savour of death 
 
22 SERMON I. 
 
 unto death, unto your souls." Hear 
 under the influence of these solemn 
 and awakening considerations ; and 
 then your attention will be freely giv- 
 en and insensibly arrested ; your minds 
 will be in such a lively and suscep- 
 tible frame as to receive and to re- 
 tain the good impressions that may be 
 made upon them ; the things of time 
 will vanish from your thought, and 
 those of eternity will occupy their 
 room ; the statements, and the remon- 
 strances, and the invitations, and the 
 commands, which we bring to you from 
 the volume of inspiration, will go home 
 to your conviction and your hearts 
 with tenfold greater facility and effect ; 
 and thus, by the blessing of God, the 
 w T ord which we preach, listened to with 
 such an overpowering interest, and 
 meeting with such a cordial reception, 
 
SERMON I. 95 
 
 will " build you up, and give you an in- 
 
 heritai 
 
 fied." 
 
 heritance among them that are sancti- 
 
 II. We observe in the second place, 
 that there are some who hear with all 
 the disadvantages that result from a 
 want of preparation. 
 
 They are far from being indifferent to 
 the gospel. They are not only convinc- 
 ed of its truth, but have some feeling of 
 its necessity, and its excellence. They 
 give their personal attendance on its 
 public ordinances, and take an interest 
 in them. And really we see so much that 
 is good and decent and serious about 
 them, that w r e naturally expect them to 
 derive great profit and great satisfaction 
 from the preaching of the gospel. 
 
 There is one thing, however, which 
 they have omitted, and the neglect of 
 which mars and frustrates these pleasing 
 
24 SERMON I. 
 
 anticipations. They have not sufficient- 
 ly prepared themselves, or they have 
 not prepared themselves at all, for the 
 duty of hearing. They have perhaps as- 
 certained who was likely to fill the pul- 
 pit, and formed conjectures as to the 
 subject on which he might address 
 them, and speculated on the probable 
 merit or demerit of his discourse, and 
 resolved to be as attentive as might 
 be necessary for carrying away an ac- 
 curate report of its substance. But 
 they have done little or nothing more 
 than this. They have been at no pains 
 to acquire that frame of spirit which is 
 suitable to the exercise they have in 
 view, and which would fit them for en- 
 gaging in it with propriety and advan- 
 tage. They have not reflected on its 
 nature. They have not considered the 
 dispositions and temper which it re- 
 quires. And they have not studied to 
 
SERMON I. 25 
 
 obtain them. They enter into it as 
 thoughtlessly, and with as little pre- 
 vious care, as they would enter into 
 the most common employment, about 
 which their faculties could be occupied. 
 And thus they are not ready to receive 
 all the instruction that may be commu- 
 nicated, nor are they qualified to relish 
 the truths to which their attention is 
 called, and to experience fully their 
 enlightening and sanctifying influence. 
 Allow me to ask you, my friends, if 
 you do not suffer more or less in your 
 spiritual interests from this very cause? 
 Are not you often conscious of having 
 giddy minds, wandering thoughts, and 
 a divided attention while we are preach- 
 ing to you the word of God ? And may 
 not you justly trace this to the unpre- 
 pared manner in which you come into 
 the sanctuary, and take your place as 
 
 D 
 
26 SERMON I. 
 
 worshippers and hearers ? What, in- 
 deed, can be expected, when you come 
 direct and fresh from the world ; your 
 spirit burdened with its cares ; your 
 feelings glowing with its pleasures ; 
 your imaginations filled with its vani- 
 ties ; and your desires still lingering 
 on its gratifications and amusements ? 
 What correspondence is there between 
 these, and the pure, spiritual, and su- 
 blime truths which sanctify the soul and 
 lift it up to heaven ? Or are your 
 minds so constituted, or so disciplined, 
 as to be capable of making such a 
 sudden transition from one set of em- 
 ployments to another set of employ- 
 ments, which are contrary to them in 
 some respects, and which are dissimilar 
 to them in all ? 
 
 It is true, that the best meetness 
 for hearing the word is an habitual 
 
SERMON I. ?T 
 
 course of piety and virtue — a life regu- 
 lated by the principles, and animated 
 by the spirit of the gospel. And with- 
 out that, no meetness got up for the 
 occasion, and consisting in a few forced 
 reflections, or derived from the religi- 
 ous exercises of an hour, will answer any 
 good purpose. He who walks daily 
 with God, is best fitted for hearing 
 him when he speaks through the min- 
 istry of the word. 
 
 But still it is also true, that the 
 holiest and most heavenly minded 
 among men are so much affected 
 by the business and bustle of the 
 world in which they have been neces- 
 sarily engaged, and have the tone of 
 their minds so much lowered and injur- 
 ed by the anxieties, and the disappoint- 
 ments, and the ordinary occupations, 
 and the common intercourse of life, 
 
28 SERMON I. 
 
 that they require some intermediate 
 process of purification before they can 
 get their feelings assimilated to the 
 service of the sanctuary, and listen 
 with becoming reverence and devo- 
 tion to the sublime doctrines of the 
 Gospel. And it is equally true that 
 those very men who, from their princi- 
 ples and their habits, seem to need it 
 least, are most anxious and most care- 
 ful to undergo it; and they are so, 
 from the belief of its necessity, and 
 their experience of the many advanta- 
 ges which result from it. 
 
 " Go ye then and do likewise." Take 
 heed that ye hear not without prepara- 
 tion. Consider this not only as a use- 
 ful, but as an essential part of the duty. 
 And beware of neglecting it on any 
 occasion as if it had no connexion with 
 your comfort and your improvement, 
 
SERMON I. ?9 
 
 or as if it might be disregarded with- 
 out either sin or danger. Recollect 
 when you comply with this counsel, 
 you do nothing more than what is es- 
 teemed proper and uniformly practised 
 even by men of the world, when they 
 are about to enter into any peculiar 
 situation, or to engage in any import- 
 ant enterprise. It arises from the na- 
 ture of their internal feelings in rela- 
 tion to their outward circumstances, 
 and is attended to, because they desire 
 to succeed as much as possible in gain- 
 ing the object which they profess to 
 have in view. And if we omit in the 
 case before us what is observed in all 
 other cases, it may be fairly doubted 
 whether we have any serious impres- 
 sions of religion, or any just notions of 
 the importance of a preached gospel, 
 or any decided and anxious wish to be 
 benefited by the ministry of the word. 
 
30 SERMON I. 
 
 See now, my friends, what happy 
 effects would be produced by regular- 
 ly and devoutly preparing yourselves 
 for the exercise in which we are at this 
 moment engaged. 
 
 The very circumstance of your mak- 
 ing that preparation, would exalt your 
 conceptions of the duty for which it 
 was made, and induce that seriousness 
 and solemnity of feeling without which 
 it cannot be rightly performed. Then 
 again, you set yourselves down to cast 
 out of your mind, as far as is practica- 
 ble, all its secular concerns ; to ex- 
 change your thoughts of the world for 
 thoughts of God and of divine things ; 
 and to fix your regard singly and intense- 
 ly on the holy service of the sanctuary. 
 And thus you are not likely to be dis- 
 turbed by those vain, sordid, or unhal- 
 lowed sentiments which would other- 
 5 
 
SERMON I. 31 
 
 wise have come along with you, and 
 mingled themselves with your devo- 
 tions, and impaired your relish for the 
 word of truth, and prevented it from 
 reaching your heart with distinctness 
 and with effect. 
 
 But, in preparing yourselves for 
 hearing, you will do more than merely 
 endeavour to withdraw your views 
 from the concerns of a present life, and 
 to give them a spiritual direction ; you 
 will indulge also in deep and solemn 
 meditation on religious subjects. You 
 will reflect on the truth of that gospel, 
 to the preaching of which you are to 
 listen; on its importance to your safety 
 and your happiness ; on the purity and 
 excellence by which it is distinguished; 
 on the majesty and the mercy of him who 
 speaks in it to your souls ; on the dan- 
 ger of those who despise and reject it ; 
 
3* SERMON I. 
 
 and on the great salvation which it 
 brings to all by whom it is believed 
 and obeyed. And, under the impres- 
 sions produced by such reflections as 
 these, how open must you be to the 
 conviction of divine truth; how sus- 
 ceptible of those emotions which it is 
 calculated to awaken; how ready to 
 listen to the instructions which are giv- 
 en, and to yield to all that experimen- 
 tal influence which they are intended 
 to maintain over your affections and 
 your conduct ! 
 
 Nor must we forget the reading of 
 the Scriptures. The Scriptures, in- 
 deed, should be your regular and ha- 
 bitual study. But there seems to be a 
 peculiar propriety in perusing them at 
 home, with the more immediate view 
 of hearing them expounded and en- 
 forced in the house of God. This will 
 
SERMON I. 33 
 
 help you to understand more easily 
 and more thoroughly the doctrine 
 which is preached. It will qualify you 
 for bringing the statements and the 
 counsels of your ministers to that test 
 by which they should always be tried, 
 and without a strict conformity to 
 which they are not entitled to one par- 
 ticle of your favourable regard. And it 
 will serve to imbue your mind so deeply 
 with scriptural sentiment as to fit you 
 for entering with more cordiality and 
 satisfaction into our ministrations, and 
 for taking a more affecting interest in 
 our endeavours rightly to divide the 
 word of truth, and for deriving from 
 them more encouragement, more con- 
 solation, and more practical advantage. 
 And surely from this enumeration 
 we cannot exclude prayer. The divine 
 assistance and blessing are requisite 
 
34 SERMON I. 
 
 for your acceptable and useful ap- 
 proach to God in all the duties of his 
 house. You are to obtain them by 
 supplication, and you cannot expect to 
 obtain them without it. How then can 
 you hear, either with comfort or ad- 
 vantage, if you have not prepared 
 yourselves by imploring of heaven the 
 grace which you need ? But on the 
 other hand, how much would it con- 
 tribute to solemnize your minds for a 
 serious consideration of the instructions 
 delivered to you ! How much would it 
 conduce to predispose you for a hum- 
 ble and cordial reception of the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel ! How much would 
 it encourage you in the exercise of 
 that faith, and love, and lowliness, 
 which are so essential to profitable, as 
 well as comfortable hearing ! And 
 how much would it do for you, by 
 
SERMON I. 35 
 
 securing the Spirit who is promised to 
 the believing suppliant, and who alone 
 can lead you into the saving know- 
 ledge and cheerful obedience of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus ! 
 
 Take heed, therefore, that you do 
 not hear without first preparing your 
 hearts by prayer and supplication. Pray 
 that your understandings may be 
 strengthened for comprehending, and 
 that your affections may eagerly go 
 out to embrace, all that the Lord shall 
 say to you by the mouth of his servant. 
 Pray that all inferior, all worldly, all 
 unholy things, may be banished from 
 your view ; and that it may be fixed, 
 in deep attention, on the " things per- 
 taining to life and godliness." Pray 
 that your pastors may be directed to 
 truths which God will bless for the 
 conversion of sinners, and for the edi- 
 
36 SERMON I. 
 
 fication and the comfort of the body 
 of Christ; that we may speak the 
 mysteries of the Gospel out of a good 
 conscience, and of faith unfeigned, 
 and of a love which glows and burns 
 for your spiritual welfare; that our 
 only aim may be, to glorify the Sa- 
 viour by being instrumental in pro- 
 moting your salvation ; and that, what- 
 ever we say in conformity to the will of 
 God may be carried home with efficacy 
 to the consciences, and the hearts, and 
 the experience of our people. Thus 
 pray for yourselves, and thus pray for 
 your ministers; and when you hear, 
 it shall be with the comfort and the 
 benefit which you must all be desirous 
 to reap from this sacred ordinance. 
 Let those who have hitherto neglected 
 it, only be prevailed on to make the 
 experiment with sincerity and steadfast- 
 
SERMON I. 37 
 
 ness, and they will find themselves am- 
 ply and abundantly rewarded. Let 
 those who are in the habit of observ- 
 ing it, apply to it with more fervour 
 and more diligence, and they will find 
 that their improvement in attending 
 the preaching of the gospel will be in 
 proportion to the care and anxiety with 
 which they prepare for the discharge 
 of that duty. And let us all be deeply 
 concerned that we neither speak in vain, 
 nor hear in vain ; but that we so speak 
 and so hear, as that we may advance 
 our own spiritual welfare, and promote 
 the glory of him whom we profess to 
 serve. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 luke viii. 18. 
 u Take heed, therefore, how ye hear. 3 ' 
 
 III. We now proceed to observe, in 
 the third place, that there are some who 
 hear without sufficient attention. 
 
 They have not that direct, and steady, 
 and continued application of the mind 
 to the subjects presented to it, which is. 
 due to their worth and importance, and 
 which, in themselves, they are calcu- 
 lated to secure. They either inten- 
 
40 SERMON II. 
 
 tionally withdraw their thoughts from 
 what is said to them, or they allow 
 their thoughts to be seduced and oc- 
 cupied by objects which are not entit- 
 led to their immediate regard. In some 
 cases, the doctrine delivered to them is 
 so hostile to their opinions, or so ad- 
 verse to their wishes, that they think 
 themselves justified in excluding it from 
 their consideration. In other cases it 
 has certain accompaniments so revolt- 
 ing to their taste, that, on account of 
 these, they will not give heed to it, let 
 it be as sound and as momentous as it 
 may. In some cases there is such an 
 habitual preference of worldly to sa- 
 cred things, that whenever, by any ac- 
 cident or association, the latter happen 
 to occur, the former are without cere- 
 mony banished and neglected. And, 
 in other cases, there is so much list- 
 
SERMON II. 41 
 
 lessness and languor, that no care is 
 taken, and no effort made, to prevent 
 the mind from wandering; and, of 
 course, it is perpetually distracted from 
 that on which alone it should be fixed, 
 to the thousand circumstances which 
 are successively set before it by sensi- 
 ble objects, or by busy memory, or by 
 a restless imagination. In all these in- 
 stances, the word that is preached, if 
 it be not wholly disregarded, meets 
 with no suitable and corresponding re* 
 ception, even as to its being made ah 
 object of simple attention, on the part 
 of those to whom it is addressed. And 
 we are much afraid that this is a fault 
 in hearers, greatly more prevalent than 
 many are apt to suppose or willing to 
 allow. 
 
 There are symptoms of the want of 
 attention which we cannot help occa- 
 
42 SERMON II. 
 
 sionally observing, and which are too 
 striking to escape notice, or to warrant 
 a favourable interpretation. And it is 
 no want of true charity to suspect, that 
 there may be more which give no ex- 
 ternal tokens of their existence, for the 
 mind may be wandering wide when the 
 eye is intensely fixed. Reflect on the 
 manner in which your thoughts have 
 been occupied under the ministry of the 
 word ; and say, are not you conscious 
 of having been often inattentive to its 
 declarations, even when you took an 
 interest in the subject, and were pleased 
 with the mode of illustration, and had 
 a desire to understand, and to feel, and 
 to improve, by what you heard ? Have 
 no schemes of wordly business intruded 
 themselves, and found a ready access, 
 and been permitted to employ those 
 meditations which were supposed to be 
 
SERMON II. 43 
 
 conversing with the things of God? 
 Have no scenes of past or of expected 
 amusement risen up before the eye of 
 your fancy, and taken away your heart 
 from the contemplation of heavenly 
 truth, to riot in the remembered or the 
 imagined pleasures of a thoughtless 
 world ? Have you, at no time, suffer- 
 ed yourselves to depart in spirit from 
 the temple of the Lord, that you might 
 mingle in the cares and anxieties of 
 domestic life, from which you had 
 just escaped ; and thus been " troubled 
 about many things," to the neglect of 
 the " one thing needful," which God's 
 servant was earnestly pressing on your 
 regard? Have the pursuits of lite- 
 rature and science, which you had 
 wished to leave behind you when you 
 entered the sanctuary, never insensibly 
 stolen away your thoughts at the very 
 
44 SERMON II. 
 
 moment they were directed to the sub- 
 lime discoveries of the gospel, and to 
 the learning which maketh " wise unto 
 salvation ?" Have not the temporal ca- 
 lamities in which you happened to be 
 involved come upon you, in imagina- 
 tion, with such overwhelming pressure, 
 as to render a burdensome and intoler- 
 able effort, even the slightest application 
 to the message which is intended to fill 
 the soul with comfort, and to lift its 
 hopes to heaven ? I put it to all of 
 you — I put it even to those of you who 
 have set themselves with most resolu- 
 tion and most earnestness to hear the 
 word — if the current of your attention 
 has not been frequently interrupted, 
 and frequently turned aside, by things 
 which were not worthy to come into a 
 moment's competition with it, either in 
 point of intrinsic value, or in point of 
 
SERMON It 45 
 
 importance to your welfare ? And how 
 much more extensively, and how much 
 more inveterately, must the evil attach 
 to those whose general habits are ad- 
 verse to serious and vital Christianity, 
 and to whom the ordinances of religion 
 seem to be but of partial and subordi- 
 nate moment ! Let me call upon all 
 such to take heed, in this respect, how 
 they hear. 
 
 Consider, I beseech you, what inat- 
 tention to the preached gospel indi- 
 cates as to your spiritual state. It in- 
 dicates, most assuredly, a want of inte- 
 rest in the great " things that belong to 
 your eternal peace ;" a disbelief of their 
 reality, or indifference to their value. 
 u O no," you will perhaps be ready to 
 reply, " we do not admit that allega- 
 tion. We believe the gospel. We hope 
 to be saved by the plan which it re- 
 
46 SERMON II. 
 
 veals : and we are alive to its import- 
 ance and its necessity." And you may 
 probably add, " if we ever fail in at- 
 tending to the word that is preached, it 
 is owing chiefly to a weakness in our 
 nature that we cannot help, or to the 
 manner in which its doctrines and pre- 
 cepts are delivered to us." Now, grant- 
 ing that these were not mere hollow 
 pretexts, but statements containing a 
 portion of truth in them, still we main- 
 tain the justness of our conclusion, 
 when we say, that your inattention to 
 the word preached is a proof and an 
 indication that you do not feel an ade- 
 quate interest in the concerns of reli- 
 gion. For if you did, that would over- 
 come all your tendencies and tempta- 
 tions to the fault complained of. Only 
 think what the gospel is, to the preach- 
 ing of which your attention is demand- 
 
SERMON II. 47 
 
 ed. It is a revelation from Almighty 
 God. It tells you of the mercy which 
 he has exercised, and of the Saviour 
 whom he has provided in behalf of our 
 fallen race. It unfolds the scheme to 
 which you must be indebted for the re- 
 demption of your immortal souls. It 
 points out what you are to do in order 
 to escape the eternal punishment which 
 you must otherwise have suffered, and 
 to reach the eternal happiness which 
 could not otherwise have been yours. 
 And is it really possible that, if you 
 firmly believed in the truth of these 
 things, and if you were fully alive to 
 their vastness and their importance, 
 you could be wilfully inattentive to a 
 divine ordinance in which they are pro- 
 claimed to you ? — that you would not 
 feel yourselves constrained by inclina- 
 tion, as well as bound in duty, to listen 
 
4* SERMON II. 
 
 to the declaration of them with a se- 
 rious, settled, undivided regard ? — that 
 you would not consider every thing else 
 which might attempt to force itself be- 
 tween you and them as utterly trifling 
 and contemptible ? — and that, if betray- 
 ed even into a momentary forgetfulness 
 of them, you would not wonder at the 
 folly you had committed, and lament 
 the insensibility which it betokened to 
 all that is wisest, and greatest, and best, 
 instead of searching for excuses which 
 neither reason nor feeling could sanc- 
 tion ? 
 
 Nay, but consider how you act in 
 cases of far inferior moment and far 
 inferior interest. How eagerly do you 
 listen to a tale of fictitious adventures 
 and human passions, by which your 
 fate can never be affected either imme- 
 diately or remotely ; and to the details 
 of a battle, which may touch the liber- 
 
SERMON II. 49 
 
 ties of a few generations, or change the 
 boundaries of a few kingdoms ; and to 
 the statement of a plan, by which you 
 may rise to opulence and consideration 
 in this vain, uncertain, and fleeting 
 world ; and to the particulars of an in- 
 vention, which goes to improve the arts 
 and extend the civilization of a present 
 life ; and to the announcement of a dis- 
 covery, which guides our eye a little far- 
 ther into the mysteries of nature, and al- 
 lows it to expatiate more widely among 
 the wonders of a creation which is to be 
 burnt up at last, and to become as if it 
 had never been ! How eagerly do you 
 listen to these things, of all of which we 
 must say, that they are but limited in 
 interest, and value, and duration ! And 
 yet to be inattentive to the preaching 
 of that word, which narrates the history 
 and delineates the character of an in- 
 
 F 
 
50 SERMON II. 
 
 carnate God — which celebrates his vic- 
 tories over sin, and Satan, and the 
 grave — which promises you the riches 
 that last for ever — which sheds a reno- 
 vating and peaceful influence over the 
 character, and the habitations, and the 
 intercourse of men — and which brings 
 to light the life and immortality of a 
 better w r orld, and conducts us in the 
 path that leads to it : — to be inattentive 
 to the preaching of that word which 
 speaks of blessings so transcendently 
 excellent and glorious as these, and 
 after all this, to say that you are not in 
 any measure doubtful as to the truth, 
 or insensible to the importance of our 
 holy religion ! No, my friends, that 
 cannot be. This inconsistency of it- 
 self shows that your inattention to the 
 preaching of the word arises from a 
 want of lively faith in the reality of that 
 
SERMON II. 61 
 
 gospel which it reveals, and in the vast 
 moment and endless consequences of 
 those regards which we pay to it. Once 
 be completely convinced that the gospel 
 is indeed a revelation from God, and that 
 it involves your spiritual and everlasting 
 interests; let the impression of these 
 things be rivetted on your minds ; let 
 them be especially remembered, and 
 realised, and felt, when we are declar- 
 ing to you the truths of the Bible ; and 
 then, but not till then, may we expect 
 that you will not easily allow any fo- 
 reign subject to engross your thoughts ; 
 that you will resolutely repel every 
 thing which might serve to distract or 
 to disturb you ; and that you will give 
 your whole, and your eager, and your 
 persevering attention to the instructions 
 which are delivered to you from the 
 word of the living God. 
 
52 SERMON II. 
 
 That you may be induced to take 
 h^ed how ye hear, as to the attention 
 which you pay, remember that when 
 you are deficient in this quality, so far 
 are you deficient in the respect you 
 owe to God. It is true we may err, 
 and inculcate our own opinions in the 
 room of inspired truth ; and it becomes 
 you to be vigilant in guarding against 
 this evil, by a personal and habitual 
 application to the Sacred Scriptures, 
 and by employing them as a test for 
 trying the soundness of our ministra- 
 tions. But having ascertained that our 
 doctrine is agreeable to these Scrip- 
 tures, you are then to consider what we 
 say, not as the word of fallible man, 
 but as the word of the infallible God. 
 We deliver to you his message, and 
 when you do not attend to it, even with 
 all the disadvantages under which it 
 
SERMON II. 53 
 
 may labour from our imperfection, you 
 in fact refuse to attend to Him who 
 speaks to you from the throne of hea- 
 ven and eternity. You would care- 
 fully avoid such disrespectful conduct 
 to the great and the wise of this world. 
 Judge ye, then, how irreverent and how 
 criminal it must be to Him who " is 
 over all God, and blessed for ever." 
 
 Then consider how discouraging it 
 is to the ministers of the gospel, when 
 their preaching of it is treated with in- 
 attention. We do not make this re- 
 mark for our own sake, but for yours. 
 If you are to be benefited by our ser- 
 vices as preachers of Christianity, then 
 every thing which tends to dispirit and 
 to damp our efforts in that character, 
 must be proportionally detrimental to 
 your spiritual interests. And be as- 
 sured, that nothing contributes so di- 
 
5% SERMON II. 
 
 rectly to paralyse and deaden our exer- 
 tions, as seeing you turning a deaf ear 
 to what we communicate to you " in the 
 name of the Lord," and what we believe 
 to be essential to the salvation of your 
 souls. But, on the other hand, when 
 we observe you taking a deep interest 
 in "the words of eternal life," which we 
 bring to you from God, and listening 
 to them with devout attention, and anxi- 
 ous that you should lose nothing of all 
 that is imparted, this operates sweetly 
 and powerfully as a direct encourage- 
 ment to diligence in the work of in- 
 struction. We are comforted when we 
 behold this symptom of grace, and re- 
 gard it as a token for good. Your wil- 
 lingness to hear makes us more willing 
 to speak all that the Lord our God has 
 said unto us. The prospect of success 
 stimulates us to greater zeal in this de- 
 
SERMON II. 55 
 
 partment of duty. And conscious that 
 we need every motive to ardour and 
 fidelity, we gladly yield to the influ- 
 ence of such a consideration, and in 
 every individual instance in which we 
 see you giving your mind to the sub- 
 jects that are set before you, we feel 
 that there is an argument constraining 
 us to study them with more care, and 
 to address you upon them with more 
 energy, and with more affection. 
 
 You should likewise remember, that 
 the effects of inattention are most per- 
 nicious to your own welfare. It will 
 prevent you from comprehending so 
 well as you would otherwise do the 
 truths that are preached. When you in- 
 dulge in it, you know not what loss you 
 may sustain. Something may have pass- 
 ed away unheeded, which the Lord 
 would have blessed for enlightening 
 
 
56 SERMON II. 
 
 your understanding, and giving you a 
 more correct and perspicuous view of 
 the gospel dispensation. You may have 
 lost a link in the chain of argument, 
 or a fact adduced for illustration, or a 
 remark useful in expounding the text, 
 or a reason for believing a particular 
 doctrine, or a motive for obeying a 
 specified precept. And in this man- 
 ner you may have retarded your pro- 
 gress in religious knowledge, and in 
 spiritual wisdom ; and must either have 
 received less information than you 
 would otherwise have attained, or have 
 an imperfect and limited comprehen- 
 sion of what you actually possess. Be- 
 sides this, the want of due attention 
 is highly unfavourable to the remem- 
 brance of what you hear. Every per- 
 son is sensible of this connexion ; and 
 when we wish to retain any thing long 
 
SERMON II. 57 
 
 or distinctly in our memory, we apply 
 our mind to it with great intensity. If 
 we do not attend to what is delivered, 
 we cannot thoroughly understand it; 
 and a thorough understanding of any 
 statement seems to be essential to an 
 accurate and permanent recollection of 
 it Where no due attention has been 
 paid, the memory is either not impress- 
 ed at all, or the impression is so feeble 
 and incorrect, as to be comparatively 
 useless. And that which is not remem- 
 bered, cannot be of any service in 
 strengthening the faith, or regulating 
 the practice. So that, in this way, your 
 inattention to the preaching of the word 
 will mar your improvement in an incal- 
 culable degree, and render that ordin- 
 ance ineffectual to the important pur- 
 poses for which it was appointed. As 
 then you would show that your hearts 
 
58 SERMON II. 
 
 are interested in the gospel; as you 
 would exhibit a becoming respect for 
 that great Being whose gospel it is ; as 
 you would give comfort and encourage- 
 ment to those who minister to you the 
 word of life; and as you would pro- 
 mote your own edification and welfare, 
 listen to the preaching of the word with 
 deep and serious and unbroken atten- 
 tion. And in this respect, also, " take 
 heed how ye hear." 
 
 IV. There are some who hear with 
 prejudice and partiality. They have 
 prejudice and partiality with respect to 
 those who speak ; and they have pre- 
 judice and partiality with respect to 
 what is spoken. 
 
 I say they hear with prejudice and 
 partiality as to those who speak. We 
 do not say that you may not prefer one 
 
SERMON .II. 59 
 
 preacher to another. There is no rea- 
 sonabless in considering the whole class 
 as standing upon one dead level, or in 
 viewing them as all equally faithful, and 
 equally able, and equally useful. It is 
 even a duty, in general circumstances, 
 to commit the care of your souls to him 
 by whom you find yourselves most edi- 
 fied, and who will do most to help you 
 on your way to heaven. A selection of 
 this kind, made on sound principles, 
 and from good motives, and adhered to 
 with becoming firmness, is quite in uni- 
 son with the spirit of true religion, and 
 is to be commended as indicating at 
 once seriousness and independence of 
 mind. But when you allow a trifling 
 circumstance to prepossess you against 
 any minister of the word ; when you 
 cherish such views of him, as that he 
 becomes the object of a settled and sul- 
 len aversion ; when you go from this 
 
60 SERMON II. 
 
 one to that one, and from that one to 
 another one, because you have disco- 
 vered in each of them successively, a 
 trifling foible, or an inexplicable some- 
 thing which you do not like ; when you 
 so set your heart upon any one that 
 you are reluctant to attend the minis- 
 trations of any other, and discontented 
 when you do not get a hearing of your 
 favourite, then I have no hesitation in 
 saying — that you act a part that is dis- 
 creditable to your religious character, 
 and hurtful to your religious interests* 
 We would not condemn in you those 
 particular attachments which are found- 
 ed on personal experience and deliber- 
 ate choice ; and which are formed with 
 the single and praise-worthy view of 
 promoting your spiritual prosperity. 
 Instead of condemning we would ap- 
 prove of them, and would say, that, 
 6 
 
SERMON II. 61 
 
 when you form them on such grounds, 
 and for such a purpose — when you con- 
 nect yourselves with those who " de- 
 clare the whole counsel of God," and 
 " watch for your souls as they that must 
 give an account" — you act upon a prin- 
 ciple which is recognised to be just and 
 good in all the business of life, as well 
 as it is accordant to the maxims of the 
 gospel ; and show, so far as this goes, 
 that you are, in good earnest, " work- 
 ing out your salvation." But when you 
 take up groundless prejudices against 
 some, and childish partialities for others 
 - — when the work of personal godliness 
 makes no progress, because you are 
 not, in every respect, and at all times, 
 gratified by the preaching of those who 
 stand highest in your regard — when 
 you obey the dictates of caprice more 
 than you respect the decisions of rea- 
 
62 SERMON II. 
 
 son, and are anxious to please your 
 taste rather than to consult your im- 
 provement — when every thing lies in a 
 name, or in a party, or in some showy 
 accomplishment, or in some adventi- 
 tious distinction — when you are led 
 away by " the enticing words of man's 
 wisdom," without being desirous to 
 have the preaching which is " in de- 
 monstration of the spirit and of power" 
 —when, instead of being united in the 
 pure faith and love of Him whose ser- 
 vants we are, you say by your conduct, 
 " I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I 
 of Cephas," then it is evident and un- 
 deniable that u ye are carnal, and walk 
 according to men." In your esteem, 
 and in your dislike, for the earthen 
 vessels which are provided as the mere 
 instrument of your good, you forget 
 the treasure which is committed to 
 
„. SERMON II. 63 
 
 them, and whose intrinsic value they 
 can neither increase nor diminish. You 
 are unjust to the word of God, making 
 its excellence, and its application, and 
 its efficacy, to depend upon certain 
 qualities, generally superficial and al- 
 ways Subordinate, in those who are its 
 ministers. And you are unjust to your- 
 selves, for it is impossible that, in this 
 case, you can derive that knowledge, 
 and that edification, which should be 
 your paramount object in attending the 
 ministry of the gospel, and which must 
 be lost sight of in a perpetual deference 
 to the peculiarities of those by whom 
 they are conveyed, and in a perpetual 
 contention between your likings and 
 your aversions. 
 
 But I have also said, that some hear 
 with prejudice and partiality, as to 
 what is preached, as well as to those 
 
64 SERMON II. 
 
 who preach it. They do not profess 
 opposition or dislike to any part of 
 Christianity. If we put the case on 
 this footing, then Christianity as a 
 whole is the object of their faith and 
 reverence. But widely different is their 
 practice as hearers of the word. They 
 have formed predilections for certain 
 departments of the gospel, or for cer- 
 tain delineations of it, or for certain 
 modes of preaching it, to which we 
 must accommodate our ministrations, 
 or run the risk of incurring their cen- 
 sure, and making our instructions dis- 
 agreeable and useless to them. There 
 are certain topics of which they are 
 particularly fond, and there are other 
 topics which they particularly dislike ; 
 and their comfort, and their improve- 
 ment, in listening to us, are made to 
 rest almost, if not altogether, on our 
 
SERMON II. 6$ 
 
 dwelling upon the former with unceas- 
 ing repetition, and avoiding the latter 
 as we would avoid a pestilential heresy. 
 Some of them will have nothing but 
 doctrine, and privilege, and promise; 
 and, in every allusion to good works, 
 they descry a departure from saving 
 truth, and must not incur the danger 
 of being led away from the strong- 
 holds of faith and grace. Others 
 would have us to insist upon nothing 
 else than the precepts of the moral law, 
 and shudder at the very mention of 
 justification through the merits of a 
 Redeemer, and of the sanctifying influ- 
 ences of the Spirit : and w r ould have us 
 to leave these for fanatics and hypo- 
 crites, and confine ourselves to what 
 they are pleased to call intelligible and 
 practical. Some would have us to be 
 chiefly occupied with discussing the 
 
66 SERMON II. 
 
 evidences of our religion, and remov- 
 ing the objections that have been urged 
 against it, and solving the difficulties 
 that are to be found in its history and 
 its tenets ; and thus to content ourselves 
 with defending its outworks, without 
 giving any particular exhibition of its 
 internal and constituent truths. Others 
 do not care much what topic we select 
 for discussion, provided it be of an un- 
 common kind, and provided we bring 
 the discoveries and principles of human 
 science to bear upon it, and treat it in 
 a manner somewhat original, and adorn 
 it with brilliant and fanciful illustra- 
 tions; but if we fail in these points, 
 they either will not hear us at all, or 
 they hear us without any interest. 
 Some would have us to present to them 
 nothing but what has a tendency to 
 sooth, and flatter, and comfort; and 
 
SERMON II. 67 
 
 regard us with indescribable aversion 
 and disgust when we venture to tell 
 them roundly of their guilt, and pro- 
 claim to them the terrors of the Lord. 
 And others, whatever be the strain of 
 our discourses, must have them couch- 
 ed in a particular phraseology ; though 
 even about this phraseology they are 
 not agreed ; for whatever species of it 
 we adopt, if, on the one hand, we es- 
 cape the accusation of being unsound 
 in our principles, we are in great dan- 
 ger, on the other hand, of being ridi- 
 culed as irrational, enthusiastic, and 
 enemies to all good taste. 
 
 It is thus that men hear with preju- 
 dice and partiality as to what we ad- 
 dress to them. But surely, my friends, 
 if this be the manner in which you 
 hear, you are acting with a strange 
 and ruinous perversity, and are regard- 
 less of what Christianity is, and of 
 
68 SERMON II. 
 
 what our duty in preaching it consists 
 ill. To adapt our ministrations to all 
 these various views would be absolute- 
 ly impossible. Any attempt to do so 
 would lead us into endless errors and 
 inconsistencies. We must preach the 
 gospel as it is found in the inspired 
 record — ■" the faith as it was once deli- 
 vered to the saints" — " the whole coun- 
 sel of God" as it is revealed by Christ 
 and his prophets and apostles. Were we 
 to do otherwise, we should be unfaith- 
 ful to the trust committed to us ; we 
 should be " handling the word of God 
 deceitfully," and contributing, not to- 
 guide and to save, but to delude and 
 to ruin the people who wait on our 
 ministry. The gospel consists of a va- 
 riety of parts, but these parts are all in 
 complete harmony ; they are necessary 
 to the beauty and perfection of the 
 
 6 
 
SERMON II. 69 
 
 whole, and none of them are intended 
 for separate exhibition, or capable of 
 being detached from the rest, and yet 
 answering their destined purpose, in 
 forming the faith and the character of 
 the Christian, and preparing him for 
 heaven. And we, as ministers of the 
 gospel, must, if we would act consci- 
 entiously, conform to the character 
 which it thus possesses, and endeavour 
 to set it before you in all its fulness, 
 and in all its power, and in all its glo- 
 ry. We must, accordingly, declare to 
 you the doctrines of grace, and, at the 
 same time, inculcate upon you the pre- 
 cepts of godliness, in their proper con- 
 nexion, and for their proper ends. 
 We must, as the great householder 
 mentioned by our Lord, " bring out of 
 our treasures things both new and old." 
 Like wise master-builders, we must 
 
70 SERMON II. 
 
 both lay a good foundation, and raise 
 upon it a suitable superstructure. We 
 must not, in our anxiety to prove the di- 
 vine origin of our religion, keep you ig- 
 norant of those truths which it contains, 
 and for whose sake alone its evidence 
 is of any value. We must give milk 
 to those who are babes in Christ, and 
 strong meat to those who are of mature 
 age. And, in short, in the subjects on 
 which we fix, and in the modes in 
 which we illustrate them, and in the 
 language which we employ when 
 speaking of them, we must accommo- 
 date ourselves to circumstances, while 
 we adhere to truth and duty; and have 
 recourse to that variety in our preach- 
 ing which is suited to the variety 
 that prevails in the capacities, and at- 
 tainments, and conditions, and tastes, 
 of those that hear us. We cannot do 
 
SERMON II. 71 
 
 otherwise either wisely or safely ; and 
 hence it becomes you to take heed that 
 you do not hear under the influence of 
 those prepossessions to which we have 
 alluded. Consider well the nature and 
 particulars of the gospel scheme. Che- 
 rish in yourselves a willingness to have 
 the whole truth as it is in Jesus declar- 
 ed to you. Do not attempt to confine 
 your own views, or the labours of your 
 ministers, to any one part of Christian- 
 ity. Banish all those false and nar- 
 row-minded principles which would 
 thus limit our exertions and our use- 
 fulness ; and study to hear without 
 prejudice, and without partiality. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 LUKE VIII. 18. 
 " Take heed, therefore, how ye hear." 
 
 V. We now remark, in the fifth place, 
 that there are some who hear without 
 sufficient humility. 
 
 They are too proud to receive, with 
 any degree of submission and cordi- 
 ality, the instructions which are de- 
 livered to them. They either flatter 
 themselves that they are already as 
 well acquainted with religion as it is 
 necessary for them to be ; or they have 
 
74 SERMON III. 
 
 so much confidence in their own judg- 
 ment on the subject, that they will not 
 accept of the lessons that are given, ex- 
 cept in so far as these coincide with their 
 inclinations or their opinions. And 
 thus, conceited of their attainments in 
 Christian knowledge, and of their abi- 
 lity to decide with accuracy on every 
 point connected with the topics that are 
 discussed before them, they reject many 
 things which are true and essential, con- 
 tinue in the ignorance from which the 
 ordinance of preaching is intended to 
 rescue them, and derive little benefit 
 even from the truths to which they are 
 constrained to yield their assent. 
 
 The general impropriety and hurtful 
 tendency of this temper will be acknow- 
 ledged by all. But those who are char- 
 geable with it will very probably take 
 refuse in the distinction which subsists 
 
SERMON HI. 15 
 
 between our statements and the state- 
 ments of the Bible ; and they will be 
 ready to say, " It is arrogant on your 
 part to require, and it would be dastard- 
 ly on ours to exercise, an unlimited ac- 
 quiescence in the dictations of men who 
 are of like reason and of like passions 
 with ourselves." Right, my friends, the 
 distinction you mention is sound and 
 obvious. We allow it in all its extent. 
 We wish you to attend to it with the 
 greatest care ; to " call no man master," 
 in this respect ; to read your Bible, and 
 to judge of what we say, by what it 
 contains. Indeed, when I speak of your 
 being attentive to separate our exposi- 
 tions from the pure record of inspira- 
 tion, I do not insinuate that it is at all 
 common to submit to the authority of 
 human teachers. This is not a prevail- 
 ing sin of our age or country. But I 
 
76 SERMON III. 
 
 speak thus to prevent you from think- 
 ing that we have any desire to make 
 you slaves to our peculiar doctrines or 
 notions. We desire no such thing. 
 We protest against all blind and passive 
 confidence in the wisdom or the autho- 
 rity of fallible men. We beseech you 
 to go to the Scriptures ; to make your- 
 selves intimately acquainted with them ; 
 and to bring all that you hear from us 
 to the test with which they furnish you 
 for discovering and ascertaining divine 
 truth. 
 
 What we complain of in the persons 
 to whom we allude, is a proud, unhum- 
 bled, un teachable spirit, with inference 
 to that divine truth. They either will 
 not study their Bible so as to be quali- 
 fied for distinguishing between what is 
 scriptural and what is unscriptural in 
 our discourses ; or, though they are ca- 
 
SERMON III. 77 
 
 pable of making the distinction, they do 
 not cherish that docility of disposition 
 which is due to the unerring instruc- 
 tions of Him whose will we simply com- 
 municate. , They will not permit us to 
 " have dominion over their faith," and 
 here they are perfectly right ; but nei- 
 ther will they permit us to be " help- 
 ers of their joy," and therein they are as 
 perfectly wrong. They watch with 
 jealousy and distrust every saying which 
 emanates from ourselves ; and so they 
 may, if they suspect us of " handling the 
 word weakly or deceitfully :" but they 
 go a great deal farther, and even when 
 we preach to them the very declarations 
 in the very language of Scripture, they 
 listen in the attitude of reserve and 
 doubt, and if they do not reject it alto- 
 gether, admit it into their minds with 
 much unwillingness, and with many 
 
78 SERMON III. 
 
 scruples and qualifications. When we 
 tell them of their natural ignorance re- 
 specting the way of salvation, and of 
 their incompetency to find it out by any 
 efforts of their own, their mind rises up 
 in rebellion against the mortifying as- 
 sertion, and they repudiate it with 
 disdain as an unjust impeachment of 
 their acquirements and their capacities. 
 When we remind them of their guilt, and 
 refer them to the justifying righteousness 
 and atoning blood of a Redeemer, they 
 reluctantly confess the demerit of their 
 character, and the danger of their con- 
 dition, and still cling to their own do- 
 ings as the ground of their deliverance 
 and their hope. When we press upon 
 them the sinfulness and depravity of 
 their hearts, and the necessity of ap- 
 plying for the influences of heavenly 
 grace, they cannot bear to be thus de- 
 
SERMON III. 79 
 
 graded, as they think, in their own es- 
 teem, and persevere in their flattering 
 ideas of the dignity of human nature, 
 and resist all our admonitions as imply- 
 ing a denial of the personal and the in- 
 vincible strength which they believe 
 themselves to possess. When we speak 
 to them of doctrines whose mysterious- 
 ness confounds their powers of compre- 
 hension, and of precepts which contra- 
 dict their favourite enjoyments and pur- 
 suits, they listen to us without any cor- 
 dial reception of the one, or any cheerful 
 subjection to the other, and rather regard 
 them as an insult to their understand- 
 ing, and a tax upon their liberty, than as 
 the dictates of a wisdom which the 
 wisest should respect, and of an autho- 
 rity which the mightiest should obey. 
 In short, they have such an entire de- 
 pendance upon their own sufficiency in 
 
80' 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 every respect; they conceive themselves 
 to be so intelligent, and so good, and so 
 adequate to all that is required of them; 
 they are so little aware of their nume- 
 rous deficiencies, and have such exag- 
 gerated and overweening thoughts of 
 their poor attainments ; they imagine 
 that they are so independent of foreign 
 tuition, or of foreign aid; that they not 
 only consider our preaching as in most 
 cases useless for the illumination of 
 their gifted minds, or the improvement 
 of their superior characters, but also re- 
 gard many of those truths which we 
 bring to them most directly and most 
 purely from the inspired volume, with 
 sentiments so remote from humility, as 
 that they might even be deemed inde- 
 corous towards the wise and the learn- 
 ed among their fellow-creatures. 
 
SERMON III. 81 
 
 Now, my friends, are you conscious 
 that such is the temper with which you 
 hear ? I do not say that any of you 
 cherish it to the extent which I have 
 now described. That, however, is of 
 little comparative consequence. The 
 same disease may exist in different in- 
 dividuals, with different symptoms and 
 different degrees of violence or of inve- 
 teracy ; but still it is a disease, and as 
 such, is attended with danger, and 
 warrants the administration of a reme- 
 dy. You may not be so destitute of 
 humility as to make you spurn from 
 you with disdain the whole system of 
 the gospel, to which we call your atten- 
 tion, and demand your submission ; but 
 you may listen to the preaching of it 
 without that kind and that degree of hu- 
 mility which is equally required by its 
 own divine character, and by the cir- 
 
82 SERMON III. 
 
 cumstances of those to whom it is ad- 
 dressed. You may be so humble as to 
 receive one of its truths, or one of its 
 commandments, but not so humble as 
 to receive another, though it be just as 
 well entitled to your regard. You may 
 not be proud enough to reject a doc- 
 trine altogether, but you may be so 
 proud as not to admit it into your creed 
 till you have stripped it of those quali- 
 ties with which God himself had invest- 
 ed it, but which had rendered it offen- 
 sive to your reason, or unpalatable to 
 your taste. You may not be so lofty 
 or unbending, as to look upon all that 
 we say with the conscious superiority 
 of those who think themselves too sage 
 to need instruction, and too great to be 
 told their duty; but there may be cer- 
 tain points, with regard to which you 
 may feel your minds rising in opposi- 
 
SERMON III. 83 
 
 tion, and obstinately refusing either to 
 believe or to comply. In all these cases, 
 the evil is substantially the same. And 
 every variety of it is to be deprecated, 
 as no less injurious than it is unbecom- 
 ing ; and, in proportion to the degree in 
 which it prevails, will be the mischief 
 which your character and your comfort 
 must sustain. The word that is preach- 
 ed conveys to you the message of God. 
 And how can you refuse to hear it with 
 the profoundest humility, and at the 
 same time avoid the sin of rebelling 
 against his supreme authority, and dis- 
 puting the infinite wisdom of his coun- 
 sels ? The word that is preached com- 
 municates to you a system of doctrine 
 and of duty which all the art of man 
 could never have formed or discovered. 
 And how can you refuse to hear it with 
 the profoundest humility, and yet show 
 
84 SERMON HI, 
 
 your gratitude fo v the revelation which 
 it gives you, or be exculpated from the 
 charge of denying its necessity and im- 
 portance, and consequently, of im- 
 peaching the character of its all-perfect 
 author ? The word that is preached is 
 requisite for making you wise unto salva- 
 tion. And how can you refuse to hear 
 it with the profoundest humility, and yet 
 hope for that salvation with which it 
 alone makes you acquainted, and to 
 which it alone proposes to conduct you, 
 and for the accomplishment of which 
 it alone declares the appointed and the 
 adequate means ? As then you regard 
 the claims of duty, and gratitude, and 
 advantage, banish from your minds, as 
 hearers, that pride which would pre- 
 vent you in any measure from " con- 
 senting to wholesome words, even the 
 2 
 
SERMON III. 85 
 
 words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 to the doctrine which is according to 
 godliness." If you have hitherto listen- 
 ed with any of that spirit which resists 
 the truths of the gospel, be now " con- 
 verted and become as little children; 
 and as new-born babes desire the sin- 
 cere milk of the word, that ye may 
 grow thereby." And having satisfied 
 yourselves that the word which ye 
 hear of us is indeed the word of God, 
 receive it with all lowliness, and sub- 
 mission, and obedience, " not as the 
 word of men, but (as it is in truth) the 
 word of God, which effectually worketh 
 in them that believe." 
 
 VI. In the next place, there are some 
 who hear merely or principally with a 
 view to criticise. 
 
 This is chiefly characteristic of the 
 young, who are desirous of being thought 
 
86 SERMON III. 
 
 wiser than their teachers, and of such of 
 the old as have not had sufficient wisdom, 
 or sufficient self-denial, to correct the 
 foolish habits of their earlier years — of 
 those whose judgment is too feeble to pe- 
 netrate into the substantial merits of a 
 subject or a discourse — and of those 
 whose head is more engaged than their 
 heart in the consideration of divine truth, 
 and in the exercises of God's sanctuary. 
 Were the persons who are addicted to 
 it listening for the purpose of getting 
 instruction, of having their principles 
 strengthened and their practice improv- 
 ed, and of being better prepared for liv- 
 ing and for dying, for judgment and eter- 
 nity, — many things in the manner and 
 circumstances of the discourse, on which 
 they exercise their critical powers, 
 would escape their notice altogether, 
 or, if observed, would be dismissed with 
 
SERMON III. 87 
 
 a passing thought, as unworthy of any 
 serious regard, or any lengthened re- 
 membrance. But not having the desire 
 of being truly edified, or not having 
 that desire in any tolerable degree, 
 they employ themselves with the spe- 
 culative or superficial merits of what 
 they hear ; they bring to bear upon it 
 those rules and maxims with which they 
 would decide upon an idle novel or an 
 acted drama ; and instead of attending 
 to the important and everlasting truths 
 which it addresses to their souls, are 
 perpetually watching for the appearance 
 of those external beauties or defects, 
 with which the enunciation of these 
 truths may happen to be accompanied. 
 Like many other critics, their voca- 
 tion consists chiefly in finding fault. 
 And, indulging in this pursuit, their 
 taste becomes so vitiated, that little else 
 
88 SERMON III. 
 
 attracts their notice. They either do 
 not speak of a sermon at all, or they 
 speak only of what they thought wrong 
 in it; and sometimes rather than not 
 have their appetite gratified, they will 
 rack their invention to discover ble- 
 mishes, which have no existence except 
 in their own imagination, or in their 
 own ignorance. The manner of the 
 speaker was too dull, or it was too live- 
 ly. His language was incorrect, or it 
 was inelegant. His argument was fee- 
 ble in one point, and it was superfluous 
 in another. His subject was not judi- 
 ciously chosen, and his method was not 
 skilfully devised, and his illustrations 
 were not sufficiently striking nor ap- 
 propriately introduced. On the whole, 
 the matter had twenty faults, and the 
 manner and composition had twenty 
 more. And though here and there 
 
SERMON III. 89 
 
 something good appeared, yet they de- 
 termine that the general character of 
 the discourse was offensive to a philo- 
 sophical mind and to a cultivated taste. 
 I appeal to you, my friends, when you 
 converse with certain persons about 
 what they have heard in church, if this 
 be not the whole amount of their im- 
 pressions, and recollections, and at- 
 tainments. 
 
 Now, we certainly think that our 
 hearers might be better employed than 
 in attending to these adventitious and 
 comparatively trifling particulars. If 
 they really love the truth, and are de- 
 sirous to have it addressed to them, 
 they cannot surely believe it to be less 
 important or less necessary, because 
 the dress in which it is presented to 
 them has not all the colours which their 
 eye delights in, or all the forms and or- 
 
90 SERMON III. 
 
 naments which their fancy desiderates. 
 Are the doctrines of the gospel less inte- 
 resting, or are its precepts less bind- 
 ing, or are its promises less precious, 
 because the declaration of them is ac- 
 companied with an ill-chosen metaphor, 
 or an unclassical phrase, or even an 
 ungrammatical expression ? Is the mes- 
 sage of salvation not worthy of your 
 acceptance, unless it be conveyed 
 through the channel of a logical argu- 
 ment, or upon the wings of a rhetori- 
 cal figure ? Have you no relish for the 
 "faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came 
 into the world to save sinners," unless 
 it rest upon your ear in all the grace, 
 and cadence, and intonations of a well- 
 turned period ? Or must we cease to 
 preach, and must you fail to be edified, 
 till we can remove all imperfections 
 from our style, and address you in the 
 
SERMON III. 91 
 
 modes of a perfect oratory, or, what is 
 still more difficult, be successful in sa- 
 tisfying the views and the wishes of eve- 
 ry one who chooses to sit in judgment 
 over our humble attempts to instruct 
 them, and to exercise his ingenuity, and 
 please his fastidiousness, in the detec- 
 tion and exposure of what may be 
 blameable in our discourses ? 
 
 I am not aware, indeed, of any rule 
 in religion which forbids you to admire 
 the energy of a close and powerful ar- 
 gument, or to love the elegancies and 
 the beauties of a classical diction, or to 
 be pleased with the propriety of a cor- 
 rect and graceful manner. And if you 
 can get the truth associated with all 
 these attractions and advantages, we 
 wonder not that you should be delight- 
 ed with this happy combination of the 
 useful and the agreeable, and that you 
 
92 SERMON III. 
 
 should prefer it wherever it is to be 
 found. But is it right that you should 
 lose sight of the truth itself, or give it 
 but a partial and disproportionate re- 
 verence, when it does not happen to 
 have these outward recommendations ? 
 —that you should fix your sole atten- 
 tion on the deformities with which it is, 
 or on the decorations with which it might 
 have been, accompanied ? — that the 
 mere accidents of the subject should be 
 allowed to exclude from your regard 
 its essential import ?— that you should 
 forget the great concerns of the gospel, 
 and its connection with your eternal 
 fate, amidst your objections and your 
 dislikes to the manner in which it is 
 preached to you? As well may you 
 neglect genius because it is found in a 
 lowly cottage, and despise the good 
 man because he is clothed in the rags 
 
SERMON III. 93 
 
 of poverty, and throw away the dia- 
 mond because it is encrusted with 
 the sordid earth, and refuse the food 
 which is indispensible to your support, 
 because it is not dressed with epicurean 
 skill, and served up with all the show 
 and parade of fashion. To indulge in 
 that minute and superficial criticism of 
 which we are speaking, is not only in- 
 consistent with the vast, the infinite im- 
 portance of the word that is spoken to 
 you, but it tends to unfit you for ever 
 listening to it with any interest or re- 
 lish. It gives you a habit of trifling with 
 an exercise which should occupy your 
 most serious thoughts; and, if persisted 
 in, it must so far render the ordinance of 
 preaching ineffectual to the attainment 
 of any good purpose, and even make it 
 the means of nourishing a spirit of cen- 
 soriousness in matters of religion. Sure- 
 
94, SERMON III. 
 
 ly, then, it becomes our hearers to re- 
 nounce and to avoid it, as unsuitable 
 to the character in which they attend 
 our ministrations, and injurious to their 
 own spiritual interests. We would 
 not, indeed, have them to be utterly re- 
 gardless of the manner in which Christ- 
 ianity is declared, and explained, and 
 enforced upon them. We would not 
 have them to be indifferent whether it 
 be preached in a way to conciliate their 
 judgment, or in a way to offend and 
 disgust it. We would not have them 
 to decline all opinions and all remarks 
 on those qualities of preaching which 
 do not affect its intrinsic merits. We 
 do not wish for such a sacrifice, nor do 
 we expect it. But we contend for ab- 
 stinence from that vice which consists 
 in criticising and finding fault, as if it 
 were the only or the official duty of a 
 
SERMON III. 95 
 
 hearer. We would exhort those who are 
 addicted to it to recollect the object for 
 which the word is addressed to them, 
 and for which they profess to listen to it. 
 And we must maintain, that if they con^ 
 tinue in the practice of it, though they 
 may become expert in discovering, and 
 oracular in pronouncing sentence upon 
 the literary or oratorical merits of the 
 speaker, they must proportionally cease 
 to relish, or to attend to, or to profit 
 by, the word of truth and of salvation. 
 This warning, I fear, may fail to im- 
 press them, like many that have gone be- 
 fore it ; and, perhaps, instead of consi- 
 dering how justly it applies to them, 
 and how necessary it is for them to 
 yield to its influence, they are, at this 
 moment, examining the phraseology in 
 which it has been given, and condemn- 
 ing the mode in which it has been in- 
 
96 SERMON III. 
 
 troduced. Well ; since it seems so es- 
 sential to their gratification, let them 
 even indulge in their passion for criti- 
 cal censure. I say not, let them in- 
 dulge in it so far as their duty and 
 their interest as hearers are involved, 
 for with both these it is completely in- 
 compatible ; but I say, let them in- 
 dulge in it so far as we who speak to 
 them are concerned ; — only, let it not 
 prevent them from listening to our doc- 
 trine. We can bear, I trust, to be the 
 object of their remarks, whether grave 
 or satirical ; these cannot affect our 
 comfort so much as they will affect 
 their own character ; and we can en- 
 dure them with all long-suffering and 
 patience if they will only be prevailed 
 upon not to turn a deaf ear to the 
 message that we deliver, and not to 
 shut their hearts against the calls and 
 
SERMON III. 97 
 
 invitations of the gospel. We would 
 say to them, what an Athenian ge- 
 neral said to one who offered violence 
 to him because he was giving an un- 
 palatable advice — we would say to 
 them, " Strike; but hear us." Call 
 us, if you have a mind, desultory rea- 
 soners, and incorrect composers, and 
 inelegant speakers; think all this of 
 us, and say it all of us ; but do not, on 
 that account, disregard the will of God 
 which we make know r n to you, nor 
 "judge yourselves unworthy of the eter- 
 nal life" which he has commissioned us 
 to intimate, and to offer. Take your 
 will in carrying on that petty warfare 
 — that outside skirmishing against 
 words, and phrases, and tones, and 
 gestures, of which you seem to be so 
 enamoured ; but do not turn away, for 
 that reason, from the great contest 
 
98 SERMON III. 
 
 which is waging between saving truth 
 and destroying error, and on the issue 
 of which depends your everlasting des- 
 tiny. Decry us as much as you please, 
 if it gives you pleasure, as men whose 
 speech is rude and contemptible, and 
 whose discourses are marked by all 
 the formal and literary faults which the 
 eye of a microscopic criticism is capa- 
 ble of perceiving; still we shall be 
 comforted, and shall rejoice, if we only 
 see the religion of Jesus taking fast 
 hold of your minds, and if we behold 
 you " growing in grace," and in know- 
 ledge, and " minding the things which 
 belong to your eternal peace." Ah ! 
 my friends, it will avail you nothing in 
 the great day of the Lord though the 
 volume of your minds be filled with 
 the blunders, and the inelegancies, and 
 the violations of fine taste, which you 
 
SERMON III. 99 
 
 may have detected in the discourses of 
 God's ministers, if yet you have no 
 deep impressions of those doctrines of 
 salvation which were faithfully deliver- 
 ed and earnestly enforced. Look at 
 those things about which you are so 
 much occupied, as hearers of the word, 
 in the light of eternity, and you will 
 see that they are frivolous and despi- 
 cable when compared with those things 
 of which you are, at the same time, so 
 strangely regardless. And, without sa- 
 crificing the exercise, either of an en- 
 lightened understanding, or of a refined 
 taste, let it be always in subserviency to 
 those higher ends for which you ought 
 to listen to the word of God; and, 
 whatever be the defects which enter 
 into the mode of its ministration, let 
 them all be forgotten, as it were, amidst 
 those mighty claims which the gospel 
 
100 SERMON III. 
 
 of God and of salvation, has upon 
 your attention, your faith, and your 
 obedience ; and show, by your superi- 
 ority to those trifles, which give so 
 much occupation to little and to 
 thoughtless minds, that you are listen- 
 ing to the voice of the Eternal, and 
 that you are hearing for immortality. 
 
 VII. We observe, in the next place, 
 that there are some who hear with le- 
 vity — with levity of mind, or with levity 
 of manner. 
 
 Levity of manner, in those who are or 
 should be listening to the message of the 
 gospel, is not only unbecoming in them- 
 selves, but extremely offensive to the 
 feelings of others ; and, while it insults 
 the sacredness of religion, is an acknow- 
 ledged sin against all politeness and 
 good breeding. If there be any now 
 present whose conscience accuses them 
 
SERMON III. 101 
 
 of this fault, I am confident that it will 
 condemn as well as accuse them; and 
 I hope they will study to avoid it, and 
 bring with them, into the house of 
 God, that decorum and suitableness of 
 manners which I doubt not they are 
 careful to observe in the houses of their 
 fellow-creatures. 
 
 But we are not so much concerned 
 about the outward behaviour as about 
 the inward temper and disposition of 
 those who hear. The former is doubt- 
 less of considerable consequence, both 
 in itself and in its influence ; but it is 
 chiefly to be lamented as a symptom 
 of some prevailing defect in the latter ; 
 and the one cannot be efficiently and 
 permanently corrected till the other 
 has undergone a corresponding change. 
 Nay, levity of manner may, for a sea- 
 son, be checked and restrained by a 
 
102 SERMON III. 
 
 sense of propriety, or by the strength 
 of a rebuke, or by the fear of giving 
 offence, while yet levity of mind may 
 continue to play its foolish part with 
 as much inconsideration, and as much 
 mischief to the individual, as ever. 
 The grave countenance is certainly a 
 token for good, and, in the circum- 
 stances we are speaking of, must gene- 
 rally be regarded as a proof of internal 
 sobriety; but it may, and probably 
 does, in some cases, conceal that vola- 
 tility and light-heartedness which ren- 
 ders a person surely and wholly unsus- 
 ceptible of good impressions from the 
 preaching of the w T ord. 
 
 Now this disposition may originate 
 in various causes. It may be a consti- 
 tutional failing, which is increased by 
 natural aversion to the spiritual exer- 
 cises, and which no proper means have 
 
SERMON III. 103 
 
 been adopted to counteract or to sub- 
 due. Or it may be owing to early edu- 
 cation, in the course of which no pains 
 have been taken to inspire a relish for 
 divine things, and to temper the gaiety 
 of youth with just conceptions of God 
 and an eternal world. Or it may arise 
 from those habits of thinking and of 
 feeling which have been engendered by 
 an incessant pursuitof the pleasures and 
 amusements of life, which lead those 
 who are influenced by them to seek for 
 mere entertainment in every thing they 
 engage in, and which neither the so- 
 lemnities of religion nor the infirmities 
 of old age can easily or altogether over- 
 come. 
 
 But whatever be the cause to which 
 we are to ascribe it, and whatever be 
 the degree in which it is cherished, 
 surely no doubt can be entertained of 
 
104 SERMON III. 
 
 its great impropriety, of its complete 
 unsuitableness, of its pernicious tenden- 
 cy ; and as little doubt can be enter- 
 tained of the necessity of resisting it 
 with firmness, and of labouring with 
 the utmost diligence to conquer and to 
 eradicate it, and of being especially on 
 your guard against it when sustaining 
 the character of worshippers of the 
 Most High, and hearers of his word. 
 
 You who are young should be parti- 
 cularly warned of it, because it is more 
 congenial to your natural temper and 
 your peculiar occupations and enjoy- 
 ments. It will be well that your pa- 
 rents remind you of its unfitness and 
 its danger, and train you by advice and 
 by example to that sobriety of mind 
 which will be your ornament and your 
 advantage during the remainder of your 
 life. And you yourselves should ac- 
 
SERMON III. 105 
 
 custom your thoughts to those contem- 
 plations in which young and old are 
 equally concerned, and the habitual and 
 solemn consideration of which will — not 
 destroy or impair that cheerfulness 
 which is so graceful in the young, and 
 which religion neither discourages nor 
 forbids to any, — but prevent you from 
 acquiring that wantonness of spirit 
 which converts the most sacred places 
 into scenes of merriment, and uses 
 every occasion for the indulgence of its 
 humour, and must have its jest, and its 
 laugh, and its amusement, even though 
 God should be speaking, and though 
 the soul should perish. 
 
 To you who are more advanced in life, 
 I would address a similar admonition. 
 Put away from you that giddy thought- 
 lessness which your maturer judgment 
 and experience should have long since 
 
106 SERMON III. 
 
 repressed. Remember that it is high 
 time for you to be serious, as the inha- 
 bitants of a fleeting, and the expectants 
 of an enduring world. Letyour thoughts 
 be solemnized, that you may attend with 
 propriety and with advantage to those 
 truths, of whose reality and importance 
 you must ere long have an awful de- 
 monstration. And for this purpose 
 see that you think, and feel, and live 
 in the world under the habitual influ- 
 ence of that religion which is here the 
 grand subject of consideration, and 
 which is here enforced upon you, that 
 you may go back again into the world 
 to adorn its merciful doctrine, and to 
 exhibit its sanctifying power. 
 
 And to all of you I would say, take heed 
 how ye hear, that you do it not with any 
 levity either of mind or of manner. O 
 think whose word it is to which you 
 
SERMON III. 107 
 
 are called to listen : it is the word of 
 the Holy, the Almighty, the Eternal 
 God, who has " committed to us the 
 ministry of reconciliation," and the mes- 
 sage of grace, and to whom you must 
 at length account for the reception 
 which you gave to that preaching which 
 he appointed as the instrument of your 
 salvation. Think of him who is the 
 great subject of what we address to 
 you : it is the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 beseeches you by his love, and his ago- 
 ny, and his death, to attend to what he 
 has done for your souls, and who is 
 appointed to sit upon the throne of 
 judgment, and to determine your ever- 
 lasting fate. Think of the prospect to 
 which we direct your views, and for 
 w r hich we are speaking and labouring 
 to prepare you : it is the prospect of 
 that world of retribution into which 
 
108 SERMON III, 
 
 you must all go, you know not how 
 soon or how suddenly, and where you 
 must either be happy or miserable for 
 ever. Think of these things, — think 
 of every part of that glorious and bless- 
 ed gospel which it is our duty to pre- 
 sent to your faith, and to urge on your 
 obedience, and say if it be not to sport 
 with your own safety, to insult the ma- 
 jesty and the goodness of heaven, and 
 to tempt the Holy Spirit to give you 
 up irrecoverably to delusion and to fol- 
 ly, when you enter the sanctuary and 
 hear the word with a gaiety of spirit or 
 of conduct which would be inconsistent 
 even with the serious business of a vain 
 and thoughtless world. Away with 
 such indecency ; never again let it dis- 
 turb your thoughts when engaged in 
 the services of the sanctuary ; dread 
 and resist its approach as an enemy at 
 
SERMON III loo 
 
 once to your peace and your improve- 
 ment, and be persuaded at all times to 
 hear as it becomes those who are hear- 
 ing what comes from heaven, and who 
 are hearing for the interests and the 
 happiness of eternity. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 LUKE VIII. 18. 
 
 u Take heed, therefore, how ye hear" 
 
 VIII. We now proceed to observe, 
 that there are many who hear without 
 self-application. 
 
 We naturally feel a great reluctance 
 to apply any thing to ourselves, which 
 goes to detect our errors, or to con- 
 tradict our opinions, or to thwart our 
 inclinations. The flattering idea that 
 all is well with us — pride of under- 
 standing and of heart, which prevents 
 any deep sense of our need of in- 
 
SERMON IV. Ill 
 
 struction or reproof — a fear of being 
 disturbed in that state of spiritual ease 
 to which we have reduced our minds — 
 an unwillingness to be put upon greater 
 exertions in duty than those which we 
 are already making — these and similar 
 causes produce a constant disposition to 
 ward off from our own character and 
 case whatever may be addressed to us, 
 and whatever may happen around us, as 
 if we had no interest in it, and could de- 
 rive no benefit from it. And hence it is, 
 in a great measure, that with all the 
 means of improvement which are afford- 
 ed us, and which, when they are spoken 
 of, we profess to value, we advance so 
 slowly in our Christian course, and ex- 
 hibit results in practical religion so very 
 disproportionate to the advantages we 
 enjoy, both from tuition and from expe- 
 rience. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 It would surely be wise in us to take 
 lessons of piety and virtue from every 
 quarter — to consider what bearing they 
 have on our principles and conduct — 
 and to be careful that we not merely ob- 
 serve and understand, but also feel and 
 profit by them. Even supposing that 
 they were not intended for us, yet if 
 they are suitable to our condition, and 
 if they are calculated to do us good, we 
 cannot refuse to lay them to heart with- 
 out neglecting our own best interests. 
 But when they are both designed and 
 fitted to promote that object, we become 
 guilty, by resisting their influence, of 
 the double offence of trifling with our 
 personal welfare, and despising the wis- 
 dom and authority of Him by whom 
 they have been presented to our notice. 
 
 Of this folly there are numerous in- 
 stances ; and in none does it appear 
 
SERMON IV. 113 
 
 jnore obviously and more glaringly than 
 in the duty of hearing the word. We 
 see men altogether unaffected by the 
 most melancholy and striking events of 
 Providence. Their fellow men, their 
 nearest and dearest friends, are some- 
 times removed by sudden death ; and 
 yet they do not seem to recollect that 
 this is a dispensation which evidently 
 warns them that they are liable to a si- 
 milar fate, and which should therefore 
 rouse them to serious thought, and to 
 diligent preparation for a judgment to 
 come. That is indeed strange ; even 
 though the warning must be deduced 
 in the way of inference. But it is stran- 
 ger still that the same fault is commit- 
 ted where the moral lesson is directly 
 conveyed to the mind, and where those 
 to whom it is imparted assemble for the 
 express and single purpose of receiving 
 
IH SERMON IV. 
 
 it. All that we deliver in your hearing 
 has no other object than that of edifying 
 you in one way or another. When you 
 come and listen to us, what is your pro- 
 fessed purpose but to accept of the edi- 
 fication which is offered ? And how 
 much is it to be feared, that with re- 
 spect to many, we speak to them in 
 vain, because they will not take what 
 is said to discover the plagues of their 
 own hearts, and to correct the errors of 
 their own ways, and to secure the im- 
 provement and the perfection of their 
 own character ! How much is it to be 
 feared, that while they assent to the 
 truth of what is preached, they do not 
 reflect at all on the individual and ne- 
 cessary interest which they have in it, 
 nor endeavour to ascertain how far it 
 should alarm or encourage, or comfort 
 or guide them, nor make it bear in any 
 
SERMON IV. 115 
 
 shape on their spiritual state and their 
 future destiny ! How much is it to be 
 feared, that they are occupied with 
 thinking of its suitableness to other men, 
 lamenting the perversity of one who will 
 probably treat it with disdain, or wish- 
 ing that another may attend to it, who 
 needs the doctrine which it unfolds, or 
 the rebuke which it administers ! And 
 how much is it to be feared, that at this 
 moment there are not a few who cor- 
 dially assent both to the justness and the 
 importance of these remarks, and yet 
 are falling into the very mistake which 
 they are intended to expose, by imput- 
 ing to their fellow-hearers what is at 
 least as accurately descriptive of them- 
 selves, and seeking for the want of self- 
 application in every bosom but their 
 own ! 
 
 Now, my friends, let me exhort you 
 
\U SERMON IV. 
 
 to take heed in this respect how ye hear. 
 All that we preach to you may be sound, 
 and scriptural, and important. You may 
 listen to it with patient attention ; and 
 you may comprehend its meaning ; and 
 you may admit its truth ; and you may 
 correctly appreciate its value. But all 
 this is just nothing, so long as it is not 
 brought home to those to whom it is 
 addressed, and closely and experiment- 
 ally applied to them for the purposes 
 which it is fitted to answer. Nor is it 
 enough that you apply it to your fellow 
 men, with whatever justice, or with 
 whatever candour you may do so. Still 
 the end is not gained, which the ordi- 
 nance of preaching has principally in 
 view ; and for any good effect which, in 
 that case, it has produced, we might as 
 well have kept back from you the coun- 
 sel of God which it is our office to de- 
 
SERMON IV. 11^ 
 
 clare. We would not insist, indeed, on 
 your refraining from forming opinions 
 of the merits or the demerits of others, 
 in reference to what is delivered. We 
 only say, do not make a business of it. 
 Do not allow your neighbours to en- 
 gross all your benevolent concern. It 
 is kind, very kind no doubt, to think 
 how much it would contribute to their 
 advantage, if they would only take to 
 themselves a certain admonition, or a 
 certain reproof, this doctrine or that 
 precept. But here, if any where, charity 
 should begin at home. Do thereforehave 
 some compassion on yourselves. Look 
 well to your own improvement. Re- 
 member that you have a near and spe- 
 cial interest in every truth that we state; 
 in every commandment we enforce ; in 
 every warning we proclaim ; in every 
 prospect we unfold. And even when 
 
118 SERMON IV. 
 
 you fancy that you are least of all con- 
 cerned in the declarations or the dis- 
 cussions that are brought before you ; 
 when a vice is detected, or a censure 
 pronounced, with which you cannot 
 see that you have any thing to do ; 
 and when perhaps you have found out 
 some individual with whose demerit it 
 exactly corresponds, — even then cherish 
 a wholesome jealousy, and take care 
 that it may not be said to you, as Na- 
 than said unto David, " Thou art the 
 man." 
 
 Of the necessity of this self-applica- 
 tion, when hearing the word of God, 
 you cannot fail to be convinced. And 
 if you can only have the resolution and 
 the courage to make it, you need 
 scarcely be informed of the manner in 
 which you ought to proceed. Let it 
 be supposed now that we were dis- 
 
SERMON IV. 119 
 
 coursing to you on the subject of re- 
 pentance, and that we took occasion 
 to show its necessity ; to illustrate its 
 nature ; and to state, on the one hand, 
 the happy effects of exercising it, and, 
 on the other hand, the miserable and 
 fatal effects of neglecting it. It will 
 not do for you merely to say that it is 
 all just and true ; that no topic can be 
 more interesting to mankind ; that you 
 know many to whom the consideration 
 of it might be extremely useful; that 
 you congratulate the penitent; and 
 that you pity such as are continuing 
 obstinately in their sins. Having said 
 this, you have really said little or no- 
 thing to the purpose. Why, it is ne- 
 cessary for you to repent ; repentance 
 must be exercised by you after a godly 
 sort; and " except you repent, you must 
 all likewise perish." Apply the sub- 
 
120 SERMON IV. 
 
 ject, therefore, to yourselves, and say, 
 
 have I repented ? Is the change which 
 
 I have undergone such as the Scripture 
 
 requires ? Am I bringing forth the " fruits 
 
 that are meet for repentance ?" Do I 
 
 now hate sin, and am I careful to avoid 
 
 it ? And am I entitled to appropriate 
 
 the comfort which belongs to those 
 
 who have forsaken their iniquities, and 
 
 returned through Jesus Christ to their 
 
 merciful God ? 
 
 Again, supposing that we are called 
 to point out the sin of uncharitable- 
 ness ; to expose its contrariety to the 
 spirit and letter of the gospel; and 
 to denounce against it the anger and 
 the judgments of, Almighty God. Is 
 it enough, think you, that you ac- 
 quiesce in our positions, or that you 
 can point your finger to those who are 
 obnoxious to the charges that have 
 been advanced, and who may well be 
 
SERMON IV- 121 
 
 ashamed of having indulged so much 
 and so long in the temper and conduct 
 on which we have been animadverting? 
 No. You must not only allow that 
 what we have said from the word of 
 God is true in itself, or true with re- 
 spect to others, but you must try how 
 far it is true with respect to yourselves : 
 You must be anxious to discover whe- 
 ther, or in what degree, you are desti- 
 tute of the grace of Christian charity : 
 You must reflect, not merely on its 
 general obligations, but on the obliga- 
 tions under which you lie particularly 
 and personally to cultivate it. And 
 you must recollect that to all the odium 
 and punishment annexed to it in the 
 divine appointment, you must be liable, 
 if it be found that you have not " loved 
 your neighbour as yourselves." 
 
 Once more, supposing that we preach 
 
 M 
 
122 SERMON IV. 
 
 to you, as we are now doing, on the duty 
 of hearing the word; of what avail would 
 it be that you acknowledged that there 
 was a right and a wrong way of dis- 
 charging it ; and that you could men- 
 tion some who are guilty of this impro- 
 priety, and others who are guilty of 
 that impropriety, and find individuals 
 for every variety in the catalogue of 
 errors ? Are you anything the better 
 for this ? Certainly not ; but you may 
 be the worse for it, if you are tempted 
 to rest satisfied with what is so abstract 
 and remote, and do not take a nearer 
 view of the subject in connexion with 
 your own personal conduct. In order 
 that you may reap any benefit from 
 such discussions, you must consider 
 yourselves as interested in them, and 
 see whether the descriptions given of 
 faulty hearers may be regarded as cor- 
 
SERMON IV. 123 
 
 rectly delineating you ; whether you 
 hear with indifference ; whether you 
 hear without adequate preparation; 
 whether you hear without sufficient at- 
 tention ; whether you hear with preju- 
 dice and partiality ; whether you hear 
 without becoming humility; whether 
 you hear merely or principally with a 
 view to criticise ; whether you hear with 
 any degree of levity either of mind or 
 manner. It may be true that others 
 hear in that way : so much the worse 
 for them; but what is that to you? 
 Your principal concern is to learn if 
 you are thus deficient in so important 
 an exercise, and to what extent your 
 deficiency goes ; for it is only by being 
 sensible in this manner of the evil which 
 besets you, that you shall ever be led 
 to labour and to pray for its removal, 
 
124 SERMON IV. 
 
 and come to hear the word with pro- 
 priety and with advantage. 
 
 In short, my friends, whatever be 
 the subject that we handle, self-appli- 
 cation is indispensably requisite to make 
 it useful. You must look at yourselves 
 in the mirror of the divine law which 
 we hold up to you. You must weigh 
 your heart and character in the balance 
 of the sanctuary with which we provide 
 you, from the depositary of sacred truth. 
 Ttou must measure your spiritual sta- 
 ture by that standard which we draw 
 for your use from the gospel of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. And so long as 
 we preach to you the pure dictates of 
 inspiration, you must never allow a 
 statement, nor a hint, nor a word, to 
 pass by you without laying hold of it, 
 and making it an instrument, as far as 
 
SERMON IV. 125 
 
 it will go, for determining your spirit- 
 ual condition, for purifying your prin- 
 ciples, for improving your deportment, 
 and for carrying you forward in the 
 path of righteousness and salvation. 
 
 IX. There are some who hear with- 
 out any firm and steady view to practice* 
 They hear very regularly and very 
 attentively, and are anxious to enlarge 
 their acquaintance with Christian truth; 
 but they rest satisfied with the mere 
 knowledge which they have acquired ; 
 with the gratification which it gives to 
 their natural curiosity; with the superi- 
 ority which they obtain by it over their 
 less studious and more ignorant bre- 
 thren ; or with the means which it af- 
 fords them of shining and conquering 
 in religious controversy. Or perhaps 
 they feel no great desire to be better 
 informed on religious subjects, but 
 
126 SERMON IV. 
 
 they seem to have the idea that simply 
 hearing is itself the whole of the duty ; 
 and accordingly that they may not 
 be wanting in the performance of it, 
 they hear as many sermons as they 
 can ; they are not contented with the 
 ordinary services of the sanctuary; 
 they embrace all the opportunities that 
 are offered ; and having done so, they 
 appear to flatter themselves that they 
 have done mighty things in the cause 
 of the gospel, and that little or nothing 
 more is necessary to their perfection. 
 
 Now, my friends, such a mode of 
 hearing the word is neither rational, 
 nor scriptural, nor useful ; and if you 
 have no farther aim, and make no far- 
 ther exertion, the ministers of religion 
 may as well be silent. The system 
 that we are appointed to teach is a 
 practical system : it is intended not 
 
SERMON IV. 127 
 
 only to inform the understanding, but 
 also to affect the heart and regulate 
 the conduct; to make you better as 
 well as wiser. However much some 
 parts of it may have been represented 
 as mere matters of speculation and 
 faith, there is not one of its truths 
 which is not calculated, more immedi- 
 ately or more remotely, to influence 
 the character of believers. And while 
 many of its doctrines have a direct 
 tendency to promote godliness and 
 good works, the whole of its precepts 
 go to nothing else than the production 
 of these effects : and, therefore, to hear 
 it explained and enforced without 
 yielding to its sanctifying pow r er, is to 
 be equally inattentive to its nature and 
 regardless of its design ; to receive it 
 in a form different from that in which 
 God has given it ; and consequently to 
 
128 SERMON IV. 
 
 forfeit every advantage which it would 
 otherwise have conferred. 
 
 No doubt hearing the word is a 
 duty — an interesting and important 
 duty'; and no real Christian would will- 
 ingly neglect it : but then it is only an 
 instrumented duty; it has an ulterior 
 object, and if it be not performed with 
 a view to that object, it ceases to be of 
 any value or of any use. The means, 
 in that case, are substituted for the 
 end. And an exercise which is natu- 
 rally connected with your most import- 
 ant spiritual interests, becomes a mere 
 "bodily service which profiteth nothing." 
 You may, under the direction of " itch- 
 ing ears, have heaped to yourselves tea- 
 chers ;" and you may have listened to 
 hundreds and thousands of discourses, 
 and in these you may have heard the 
 gospel faithfully and powerfullypreach- 
 
SERMON IV. - 129 
 
 ed : and yet if no practical result has 
 been kept in view, and if no practical 
 result is to be found ; or if you have 
 been more occupied with hearing in 
 the house of God than with acting 
 and improving in the path of life, you 
 are guilty of reducing the divine ordi- 
 nance on which you attend to a mere 
 spiritual toy, and deceive yourselves 
 with the appearance, while you lose 
 sight of the reality, and the power, and 
 the legitimate effects of religion. 
 
 Were it not departing from the sub- 
 ject before us, I would add that by 
 such silliness and inconsistency you 
 detract from the importance of hearing 
 the word, in the eye and estimation of 
 the world, and thus do material injury 
 to the cause which you profess to have 
 espoused ; for when they see you run- 
 ning about to every sermon which hap^ 
 
130 SERMON IV. 
 
 pens to be preached, whether it lies 
 within your sphere or not, and perad- 
 venture omitting some of the social 
 or relative duties of life, that you may 
 not commit the sin of being absent on 
 such occasions, and, as an expression 
 of your zeal, condemning those whose 
 duty at the time calls them to ano- 
 ther department, as if they were in- 
 sensible to the salvation of the gospel 
 or the obligations of piety, — when 
 they see you bustling in this manner 
 about divine service, and yet observe 
 no corresponding circumspection and 
 activity in the ordinary business and 
 substantial duties to which you are 
 called as members of society, and as 
 the disciples of Jesus, what an unfa- 
 vourable conclusion are they likely to 
 draw respecting your personal sincerity; 
 and, what is of more consequence, re- 
 
SERMON IV. 131 
 
 specting the truth and importance of 
 Christianity itself! 
 
 But I would press the subject upon 
 you for your own individual benefit; 
 and beseech you to recollect, that how- 
 ever frequently, and however attentive- 
 ly, and however devoutly you hear the 
 word, it is all in vain, unless your mind 
 be steadily fixed on that improvement 
 in your temper and character which it 
 is not more the design than it is the 
 tendency of the gospel to produce, 
 and unless you carefully direct your 
 endeavours to the practical use of all 
 that is addressed to you in the name 
 of the Lord. 
 
 It is very true you may acquire re- 
 ligious knowledge; and that is an at- 
 tainment which, so far from being to be 
 despised, is indispensably requisite. 
 You may become intimately conversant 
 
132 SERMON IV. 
 
 with all the doctrines, and facts, and 
 precepts of the Bible ; and be able to 
 quote its contents, and to reason upon 
 them, and to apply them with the ut- 
 most precision. But surely you must 
 be aware that knowledge is of conse- 
 quence just as it is well or ill employ- 
 ed. Even in secular things it is reck- 
 oned of small moment, when it does 
 not lead to beneficial effects on indivi- 
 dual comfort or on public prosperity. 
 And in matters of religion, it is out of 
 character altogether when it is viewed 
 merely in the light of furnishing mate- 
 rials for idle speculation, and not re- 
 duced to practice in all the depart- 
 ments of human life on which it can be 
 brought to operate. In the professing 
 Christian, nothing can be more absurd 
 than that he should be diligent in add- 
 ing* to his stores of religious informa- 
 
SERMON IV. 133 
 
 tion, and not in maintaining an appro- 
 priate conduct, when the very source 
 from which his information is derived 
 tells him distinctly that it is worse than 
 useless if it is not obtained and em- 
 ployed for the purpose of advancing 
 in the ways of piety and holiness. 
 " Though I have the gift of prophecy," 
 says the apostle Paul, " and under- 
 stand all mysteries, and all knowledge, 
 and have not charity" — that charity 
 which is the fulfilling of the law — " I 
 am nothing." And in the same strain 
 our Saviour said to his disciples, " If 
 ye know these things, happy are ye if 
 ye do them." 
 
 Now this being the case, what a 
 poor acquirement have you made by 
 hearing the word, when it consists 
 merely in a speculative acquaintance 
 with Christianity! Be persuaded, there- 
 fore, to hear for the purpose and 
 
134 SERMON IV. 
 
 with the view of growing in grace 
 and virtue as well as in knowledge. 
 There is no topic discussed from which 
 you may not derive some practical les- 
 sons ; and these lessons should be 
 learnt and remembered, that their ef- 
 fects may be visible in your future de- 
 portment. When you listen to the 
 declaration of your Lord's will, it must 
 be, that you may do it, whatever in- 
 dulgences it requires you to abandon, 
 whatever principles it requires you to 
 maintain, and whatever duties it re- 
 quires you to perform. Be " swift to 
 hear," — " but be ye doers of the word 
 and not hearers only, deceiving your 
 own selves. For if any be a hearer of 
 the word and not a doer, he is like un- 
 to a man beholding his natural face in 
 a glass ; for he beholdeth himself, and 
 goeth his way, and straightway forget- 
 
SERMON IV. 135 
 
 teth what manner of man he was. But 
 whoso looketh into the perfect law of 
 liberty, and continueth therein, he be- 
 ing not a forgetful hearer, but a doer 
 of the w^ork, this man shall be blessed 
 in his deed." 
 
 And it is not enough that you have a 
 general impression of the propriety 
 and usefulness of this admonition, or 
 that you pay a general regard to it. 
 It must influence you in the very act 
 of hearing, and it must influence you as 
 to all that you hear. You must not 
 only be resolved that you will practise 
 what is addressed to you from the 
 word of God : your resolution must be 
 more circumstantial and minute ; it 
 must extend to every particular to 
 which your attention is called; and 
 it must be seriously and decidedly for- 
 med at the very moment that the in- 
 
136 SERMON IV. 
 
 struction is communicated. Are we 
 descanting on the great doctrine of the 
 cross ? Listen to us with the determi- 
 nation that you will henceforth " glory- 
 in the cross of Christ," and that you 
 will submit yourselves to all its sancti- 
 fying power. Do we inculcate the ex- 
 ercise of prayer ? Let it be your set- 
 tled purpose, that you will not here- 
 after neglect a duty so important and so 
 interesting, but that in " everything by 
 prayer and supplication you will make 
 your requests known unto God." Is 
 forgiveness of injuries the theme on 
 which we happen to enlarge? Say 
 then within yourselves, I will never 
 again harbour any malicious or resent- 
 ful feeling; I w r ill freely forgive all who 
 have done me wrong; I will " go and be 
 reconciled to my brother." Is it a deli- 
 neation of our Saviour's character that 
 
SERMON IV. 137 
 
 we present to you ? Be resolved that 
 you will faithfully imitate his example; 
 that you will strive to " have the same 
 mind in you which was in Christ ;" that 
 you will in every thing "walk as he also 
 walked ;" that you will be pure as he 
 was pure, merciful as he was merciful, 
 and perfect as he was perfect. In 
 short, whatever be the subject which 
 we submit to your notice, see that you 
 attend to it with this object habitually 
 and steadfastly in your eye, that you 
 will carry with you into the world, in- 
 to your domestic circle, and into the 
 walks of private and of public life, 
 every lesson you have received in the 
 house of God, and that you will be go- 
 verned at all times by its practical au- 
 thority, and surrender yourselves with- 
 out reserve to its purifying influence. 
 
138 SERMON IV. 
 
 In this way, you will at once reflect 
 credit on the ordinance which you 
 piously observe, and promote your own 
 real advantage as hearers of God's 
 word. A great part of the charge 
 brought against " preaching," as to its 
 being " foolishness," will be done away 
 with, when men see you deriving from 
 it principles to establish you in the 
 ways of purity and goodness, and mo- 
 tives to animate you in the discharge 
 of all your duties, and to uphold you 
 in the endurance of all your trials. 
 They cannot but think favourably and 
 speak respectfully of that which goes 
 so directly and evidently to make you 
 abound more than others in the " good 
 works,' 1 which are acceptable to God, 
 and " profitable to man." And what- 
 ever opinion they may entertain, this 
 at least you shall have accomplished; 
 
SERMON IV. 139 
 
 you will have received the seed of 
 God's truth " into honest hearts f it 
 will produce the fruit which he intend- 
 ed, " in some thirty, in some sixty, and 
 in some an hundred-fold ;" and " the 
 fruit being thus unto holiness, the end 
 will be everlasting life." 
 
 X. Lastly, There are some who 
 hear without any serious regard to a 
 future and eternal world. 
 
 This, it is to be feared, is to a certain 
 degree too much the case with all of 
 us. We consider what is said as it 
 is in itself. We consider it as it should 
 affect our principles and conduct. We 
 consider it as to its influence on the 
 comforts of our present condition. 
 But all this w r hile we forget its relation 
 to the great interests of futurity, and 
 think not of it as it may bear upon our 
 everlasting state. And yet it is evi- 
 
140 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 dently from that very circumstance that 
 it derives its chief interest, its highest 
 importance, and its proper and ulti- 
 mate effect. 
 
 Were we only hearing for our bene- 
 fit in this world, what we hear would 
 neither deserve nor receive any great- 
 er degree of attention than what is 
 due to all those transient objects from 
 which we are quickly to be separated, 
 and that for ever. We might attend 
 to it, or we might disregard it, without 
 suffering any loss or gaining any ad- 
 vantage, worthy of a moment's consi- 
 deration. But how different is the 
 aspect which the word of God as- 
 sumes when we recollect that it points 
 to an endless state of existence; and 
 that our preaching is intended to 
 make you acquainted with the path by 
 which you may attain the happiness 
 
SERMON IV. HI 
 
 which it presents to you on the one hand, 
 and escape the misery which it discloses 
 to you on the other, and to persuade 
 you and to help you to pursue that 
 course in which alone you can w r alk, 
 consistently with the hopes of salvation ! 
 You cannot treat it with indifference, 
 but at the risk of being for ever 
 wretched : And you cannot give heed 
 to it as you ought to do, without being 
 for ever blessed. 
 
 Nor is this preparation for futurity 
 merely the general object of that 
 system which we deliver to you. It 
 is the object of every part of it. 
 When we illustrate a doctrine ; when 
 we inculcate a precept ; when we un- 
 fold a promise; when we explain a 
 passage of Scripture ; — it is all for the 
 purpose of more or less preparing you 
 for the eternity which lies before you. 
 The minutest remark we can make, in 
 
U2 SERMON IV. 
 
 so far as it is founded on the revelation 
 of God's will, and tends to affect either 
 your Christian faith or your moral 
 practice, must bear upon your condi- 
 tion in the world of unalterable retri- 
 bution. And of all that we say to you 
 out of the sacred volume, or under its 
 divine authority, not one syllable shall 
 be lost sight of in the reckoning and the 
 awards of that great day which shall 
 fix your never-ending doom. 
 
 Surely, then, it must be at once be- 
 coming, and useful, and necessary, that 
 you hear as for eternity. This will so- 
 lemnize your minds for a deep and 
 unwavering attention to the truths that 
 are spoken. It will lead you to attach 
 to these truths that unspeakable im- 
 portance which justly belongs to them. 
 It will dispose you to give them their 
 full and proper effect upon your minds. 
 It will prevent you from forgetting 
 
SERMON IV. 143 
 
 them amidst the secularities and allure- 
 ments of the world. It will give an 
 irresistible force to all your convictions 
 of duty, and to all your endeavours af- 
 ter holiness. It will impart such a 
 charm to every thing that is excellent 
 in Christian character, as to make you 
 love it with unconquerable ardour, and 
 affix such a baseness to every thing that 
 is vicious and criminal, as to make vou 
 hate it with insuperable aversion ; and 
 thus shut you up to the cultivation of 
 all that can fit you for the happiness of 
 heaven and immortality. 
 
 See then that you attend on our 
 preaching as expectants of an awful re- 
 sponsibility, and of an ever-during 
 hereafter. Remember that at this very 
 moment you are listening in the atti- 
 tude of those who must go to judg- 
 ment, and render an account of the 
 reception which they have given " to the 
 
141 SERMON IV. 
 
 gospel of the grace of God," and have 
 their eternal destiny affected by the 
 manner in which they have performed 
 the duty that you are now engaged in. 
 And be persuaded, at all times, when 
 employed in hearing the word, to bear 
 it upon yonr minds, that this word will 
 prove to you, either " the savour of life 
 unto life, or the savour of death unto 
 death," to your souls ; to avoid, there- 
 fore, every thing by which its efficacy 
 in enlightening, or in purifying, or in 
 saving you, may be diminished; and so to 
 listen to it, and so to receive it into 
 your hearts, as that it may become 
 your song in this the house of your 
 pilgrimage, and finally give you " an in- 
 heritance among all them that are 
 sanctified." 
 
 FINIS.