SERMON I. On Hearing of Sermons. 2 TIM. iii. 7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth. A DESCRIPTION equally emphatical and difheartening! But to whom is it applicable? If there were fuch characters in an age painfully emerging from Jewish and Pagan darkness; are there fuch in modera days? If fuch characters are to be found among the moft obfcure and mifguided fects; are there fuch in the bofom of the national church? In ancient and in modern times, among fects and in the establishment, of fuch characters there have been and there are multitudes. Is it poffible? Shall man be ever learning, and never able to attain knowledge? Shall man labour, fhall he labour in the pursuit of religious truth, and reap no fruit from his exertions? VOL. II. B The The event is poffible and frequent. In vain the husbandman fcatters the feed, if the foil is not duly prepared to receive it. The foil may be well prepared, and the feed may fpring up green among the furrows: but it is in vain that you expect a plentiful harveft, if you permit the rifing plants to be fmothered by weeds. Is it reafonable to imagine that the feed of the Gofpel, the feed from which you look for the bread of life, will flourish and arrive to maturity; if you beftow on its cultivation lefs reflection, lefs folicitude, than are neceffary for the grain which is to fupport your mortal body? The word of God will in vain be preached unto you, if you be not difpofed to embrace it. The word of God will in vain be preached unto you, if afterwards you fuffer it to be overwhelmed by the business or the pleasures of the world. My purpose is to endeavour to lead you to that frame of mind, with which a Chrif tian ought to confider the difcourfes which he hears from the pulpit. Let me request your ferious attention. For on the attention with which you regard the general truths now to be laid before you depends not only the benefit, fuch as it may be, which might be received, under the divine bleffing, from the present difcourfe: but much alfo of the advantage to be derived from the future difcourfes, which the minifters of religion may addrefs to you. That you may furvey with a comprehenfive eye the extent of your duty, it may be ufeful that you should previously turn your thoughts to mine. In the first place, therefore, I fhall briefly mention the duties of a Christian Preacher: and fhall then proceed to the duties of a Christian Hearer. I. Go ye into all the world, faid our Lord to his difciples, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Woe unto me, faid St. Paul, if I preach not the Gospel. I determined to know nothing among you, faid the fame Apoftle on another occafion, but Jefus Chrift, and him crucified (a). A Chriftian Preacher is not to fet before the congregation a fyftem of religion in part devised or modified by his own fancy. He is not to confider what fpecies of doctrine will prove most agreeable to the natural imaginations of the heart. He is not to follow the fpeculative opinions of the wifeft of men; nor to establish moral truth and moral duty on the bafis of human authority. He is to look to the (a) Mark, xvi. 15. 1 Cor. ix. 16. ii. 2. + revealed Word of God. There is his commiffion to preach: there is the religion which he is to preach. He is to preach the Gofpel. He is to preach Jefus Christ, and him crucified. He is to unfold the great plan of falvation for fallen man through faith in the atoning blood of a Redeemer. He is to teach the indifpenfable neceffity of the renewal of the heart unto holinets through the fanctification of the Spirit of grace. The corner ftone on which he is to build is Jefus Chrift. On that corner ftone he is to build, not bay and fiubble, but found and precious materials, materials which will endure the trial even of fire; pure and genuine Chriftianity, the unchangeable doctrines and commandments of the Son of God. Again; the Chriftian Preacher is to preach the whole of the Gofpel. He is to magnify the justice no less conspicuously than the mercy of Jehovah. He is to proclaim the eternal vengeance referved for the impenitent no lefs loudly than the glories prepared for the juftified fervants of Christ. He is not to dwell chiefly upon doctrinės to the neglect of practice; nor on practice to the difparagement of doctrines. He is to preach true doctrine as the ground-work of holy practice: and to inculcate holy practice practice as the effect of true doctrine. He is to labour to be the inftrument of enlightening the understanding, and also of purifying the heart. While he teaches that man is justified by faith alone, not by the deeds of the law; he is to convince his hearers that their hope will be vain, unless they add to their faith virtue, as its evidence and its fruit. How fhall the architect raise the palace, unless an immovable foundation fhall first have been established? But how fhall the pile be completed, if year after year his mind be wholly abforbed in perfecting and displaying the ftrength of the foundation? With his plummet and his fquare continually in his hand, he unremittingly proves every part of his work whether it refts on the foundation. To the foundation every apartment, even every ornament, of the ftructure has an ultimate and a difcernible reference. But he fails not to beftow diftinct and due regard on the form, the proportion, and the purpose, of every apartment; on the nature and the position of every ornament. How fhall the preacher, like a wife master-builder, edify his hearers into a fpiritual boufe, a living and holy temple in the Lord (b); unless he founds it on the (b) 1 Pet. ii. 5. 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Ephef. ii. 21. |