Rules for Hearing the Word of God, after hearing – Conclusion
AFTER Hearing God's Word.
DIrection I. Take the moſt earneſt heed that you do not let ſlip what you have received. Your Memories be the great Servants of your Faith, Hope and Obedience; and they are but imperfectly ſanctified: they be too much like the Grates that let go clean Water, and hold filthy Mud. If you take little Pains about them, you will have but ſorry Service from them. The beſt Ground will never hold the good Seed, if no care be had to drive off the Fowls that will be coming and catching it away, and if Labour be not beſtown to harrow it in. This Labour for the VVord is Labour in the Lord; and it ſhall not be in vain. Thus do, you ſhall ſurely proſper, and do well. But if this be too much in your Conceits; if you are lame, and will not uſe Crutches; if you cannot otherwiſe remember, and you will not talk with your ſelves and Families of a Sermon; nor go forth unto a Repetition; nor ask the holy Spirit to be your Remembrancer; you muſt take to your Sorrow, what you get by your Sloth. The Devil cannot rob you of a Sermon againſt your VVill: and God will not keep a Sermon in your Mind without your VVill.
Direct. II. Let your Thanks be returned after every Sermon heard. Thanks and Praiſe are God's dearly beloved; the End of all his VVorks; of your Beings, your Redemption, your Goſpel-Calls, all Ordinances and Providences. It is Hell where no Praiſe and Thanks are; and it is Heaven where there is nothing beſides. Nothing delighteth God ſo much as theſe; and for nothing on this Earth doth God expect theſe, more than for his Goſpel preached. When it is ſaid, He giveth his VVord, 'tis preſently added, Praiſe ye the Lord. And this Praiſe we are told, ſhall pleaſe the Lord better than an Ox or Bullock, than any external Sacrifice. If Ʋnprofitableneſs by the Word do not drive away Thankfulneſs, Thankfulneſs for the Word ſhall be ſure to drive away Ʋnprofitableneſs. Let your Thanks be more than verbal, your Profit ſhall be real: It ſhall appear to all Men. But as long as you hear unthankfully, you muſt be and appear unholy. Ingratitude doth, of any Sin to be named, turn Honey into Gall, and Phyſick to Poiſon. It is the ſame thing, to call a Man unthankful, and to ſay he is a Samaritan, and hath a Devil.
Direct. III. Lament your Sins in hearing, and go act Faith on Christ for your Pardon. Abundance of Droſs is in all our Gold. Iniquity abounds in our holy Things. The holieſt of them all need a thouſand Pardons, and deſerve our deepeſt Bluſhes. And let us not flatter our ſelves, Repenting and Believing be not Things indifferent, or Acts of meer Chriſtian Liberty, but indiſpenſable Duty. They muſt go before the Seal of our Pardon, in our Conſcience or in Heaven. And believe it, God is incenſed with Sin, whoever it be that ſinneth, and in whatever. He delighteth to be kind, but he hateth to be fond. As ever you would profit by a Sermon, follow it with the Tears of Repentance, and with the Prayers of Faith. Then will God give you Profit, with Meaſure preſſed down and running over. If you are too proud for this; in God's Name I tell you, that Pride of yours ſhall have a ſhameful Fall. The beſt thing proud, is worſe than the worſt that is truly humble.
Direct. IV. Examine with humble Diligence, what in hearing appeared to you as doubtful. Suſpect your own Ʋnderſtandings more than your Miniſter's: But lean not raſhly on your own, or idolatrouſly on his. If Error be in his Doctrine, it turns to Poiſon in thy Soul. Wherefore do not ſwallow what thou doſt ſuſpect. The moſt noble Hearers try all Doctrine by the holy Scriptures. Good Children ask their Parents Advice; wiſe Women ask their Husbands; the Wiſe of all Sorts go ask their Miniſters, and intreat them to clear up by God's written Word the Truth of their preached Word. Thus do; and whoever be barren Hearers, you ſhall be fruitful ones. God never fails to teach Souls ſo careful to imbibe nothing but Truth. O happy Church where Mal. 2.7. is wiſely and duly obſerved! where Miniſters Lips preſerve Knowledg, and People ſeek it at their Mouths. But it is no more than is to be expected, if ſtupid Drones and contentious Cavillers, live Idiots, and die without ſaving Wiſdom. God's Curſe reſts on the Idle, and he reſiſteth the Proud.
Direct. V. Prove your State and Condition by every Goſpel-Sermon. You cannot try too often, things whereof you can never be ſufficiently certain: I mean ſo much certain, but that you will ſtill need to be more certain. You are true Believers and alive to God, or Ʋnbelievers and dead in Sin and Miſery. You are ſtrong in the Grace that is in Chriſt, or Babes weak in the ſame. It is a ſorry Sermon by which no Help is given you, to form a Judgment of your ſelves touching theſe things. God's Bleſſing upon your conſcientious Care to make uſe of the Help, you need not to diſtruſt. His Command on you to prove your ſelves, is not without a Promiſe of Bleſſing made to it. He ever enricheth thoſe Hearers, who uſe Sermons as Scales to weigh, and Touchſtones to try their Souls. But as for the Preſumptuous, who dream themſelves to be as good as they need to be; and the Deſpairing, who conclude that they ſhall remedileſly abide as bad as they are, and therefore never put the Word of God ſo cloſe unto them; What Hope of theſe! God will condemn thoſe by his Word, who will not judg themſelves by it. If you will not make it a Light unto you, he will make it Fire to you.
Direct. VI. Carry on your Knowledg, Memory, and every good Purpoſe, unto Practice. Chriſtian Divinity is an Art of doing more than knowing God's Will, remembring it, and temporarily purpoſing to do it: It teacheth living unto God. Word and Sacraments, yea Faith and Repentance, all are for Obedience. God gave his Son, and ſent down his Spirit, to get him a People zealous of good Works as well as Words. Much Fruit it is (and not your fair Leaves) that glorifieth God. And it is the Hearer, rich in good VVorks, that God will glorify: The Hearer, to whoſe Feet the Word is a Light, to walk by it; as well as a Light to his Head, to talk by it. I have Warrant from our Saviour to tell you; If you hear his Word and ſo keep it, you ſhall have greater Honour than the Virgin Mary had in being his Mother. And do you but ſtill do the Word of his that you know, you ſhall never fail to be made know the Word that he would have you to do. Uſe well your Hands and Feet, and he will make every Sermon a Royal Salve to your Eyes. But from him that practiſeth not what he knows, from him ſhall be taken the Light that he hath: To him is promiſed no more Light; unto him is threatned the darkeſt Fire, Luke 28.29. Heathen Moraliſts hold no Man to be ſo very bad, as he who acts Evil, and no more than talks of Good. Chriſtian ones muſt needs pronounce them the worſt Monſters, that ſpeak as with cloven Tongues, and yet, as Negroes, are no where white but in the Mouth.
Direct. VII. Teach your Relations what God teacheth you at Sermons. God will never forfeit his Name of Love; nor fail to reward Charity, and ſpecially Soul-Charity. It is the Devil's Proverb, The Free ſhall not be fat. God's Proverb is, The liberal Soul ſhall be made fat, and he that waters others ſhall be watered. God will hide nothing from an Abraham, for this very reaſon, becauſe he will inſtruct all his Family with it. Go you now and inſtruct yours; ſo ſhall you be taught of God as you have never been in paſt Days: Drop Divine Truths on them, and God ſhall make Sermons rain down rich Showers on you. But vain are your idle Moans, while you are uncharitable to your Relations. If I know the Mind of God, He will ſtarve you if you will not feed them. God is a great lover of Children; and our Children are his more than ours. Nor can you eaſily incenſe God more, than by neglect of theſe his Children. I wonder not that many hear and underſtand not; becauſe what they underſtand, they teach not. You may be ever learning, but you ſhall never come to the ſaving Knowledg of the Truth, until you make conſcience of communicating the Truth you know. Thus, ſpend, and God will ſend. Teach others, and God ſhall teach you; comfort them, and God ſhall increaſe and multiply Comfort to you.
When theſe Rules ſhall be obſerved, Miniſters ſhall be joyful (both) Fathers and Nurſes: The Bed of Christ ſhall be green in our Aſſemblies. It ſhall be no more querulouſly ſaid, that our Sermons have miſcarrying Wombs and dry Breaſts. Joy ſhall be made in Heaven, and in the midſt of us. Fear ſhall come on every Soul of our Scorners. We ſhall praiſe God as the Primitive Chriſtians, and have Favour with all the People. The Word of God ſhall ſo run and be glorified; and God, even our own God ſhall ſo bleſs us. Amen.
FINIS.
End of the text · Daniel Burgess, Rules for Hearing the Word of God (1693)