SERMON IX.

LUKE, viii. 18.

Take heed how ye bear.

HE defign and end of preaching,

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confidered as an ordinance of divine inftitution, is doubtless the spiritual improvement of the hearers: Seeing the duty of the Preacher is to instruct the ignorant in the principles of true Religion; to remind all perfons of the great importance of living agreeable to it's precepts; to difplay the gracious promifes of the gospel, for the encouragement of the well-difpofed; and to de

nounce

nounce the terrors of the Lord, in order to awaken and perfuade finners.

These things every authorized Minifter of God's word is folemnly charged by St. Paul, before God, and the Lord Jefus Chrift, who fhall judge the quick and the dead, to be inftant in performing.

But if fuch be the duty of the Preacher, there must needs be a correfpondent obligation upon the Hearers. As many as frequent these facred affemblies ought certainly to bring with them a docility and ingenuousness of spirit, answerable to the truth and value of the doctrines here delivered: Which, if agreeable to the word of God, they are to receive into their hearts, and conform to in their lives and actions. I fay, if agreeable to the word of God, because no one is obliged to embrace the tenets of any human Teacher, how authoritative foever, any farther

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farther than they are confiftent with that rule of fcripture, which every one has the privilege of appealing to, and which it is incumbent on every one diligently to examine, and honeftly to apply.

And, hence it was that our heavenly Mafter, when difcourfing on matters of more than ordinary confequence, so often addreffed his Difciples in those remarkable words" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear;"-whoever he be that has a mind open to conviction, let him attend to my fayings, and be edified: To which He was pleased to fubjoin this emphatical admonition "Take heed how ye hear."-Which, plainly implying that men may hear and not improve, renders it expedient to enquire what are the qualifications requifite toward an effectual and profitable hearing of God's word. And thefe, I think may in general be comprized under the two following, viz.

Firft, A previous Difpofition to know the Will of God.— And

Secondly, A fincere Refolution to act conformably to it when known.

1. Without the former of these qualifications, without a religious fenfe, or tafte for things fpiritual, men may fee and not perceive; they may hear and not understand. And this, not by reason of any obscurity or ambiguity in the fubject; but because their affections are misplaced, their will depraved, and their judgment perverted. They love darkness rather than light, and therefore wink at it's influence; they diflike the truth, and therefore care not to come to the knowledge of it.

The Seed of the Sower, in that excellent parable of which my text is the conclufion, was, we are told, the Word

of God; and He who fowed it was the Son of God; yet was the produce of this heavenly feed always in proportion to the quality of the foil on which it fell. The honest and willing heart is that good ground, whereon the word fown never fails of a plentiful increase. But when vice and prejudice have taken root in the heart, it will admit of no improvement from the word, how well foever administered.

And hence, by the way, appears the propriety and importance of inftilling into young and tender minds the rudiments of Chriftianity, in order to prepare them for a future cultivation, and to raise within them fome early notions of piety, before the wicked One has scattered his tares there. The fear of the Lord, a timely apprehenfion of his majefty, goodness, and juftice, is (what Holy David ftiles it) the beginning of

wisdom;