When a person in high place and authority thinks fit to honour us with a message, though it be in a matter of no great importance, with what submission is it received! How diligently do we listen to it! How circumspectly is every sentence, and even syllable, weighed! We do not stand to make exceptions to the messenger, who may have nothing in his own person to command our respect; we do not much consider the grace with which he delivers his message; we are not curious to observe in what choice or elegant terms it is expressed. We are only concerned to know, that the message has been faithfully related, and then a due regard is immediately paid to it. And shall God speak to us by the mouth of his ministers, in terms which himself dictates, and which we may verify, if we please, by comparing them with his own written word,—shall, I say, the God of Heaven thus address himself to us, and we not take heed what and how we hear?
Or, suppose the opinion of a man learned in any secular profession is reported to us, on a point which falls within his province, and of which it concerns us to form a right apprehension, Is not such opinion received with respect by us, and studied with care?
And shall our Divine Master be negligently heared, when he condescends to instruct us in the way of life and salvation, a subject, of all others, the most interesting to us; a subject, which he alone perfectly understands, and concerning which he will not and cannot mislead us?
Still further, besides the authority of the divine word, there is something in the nature of it, which deserves, and, if we be not wholly insensible, must command our attention.
For shall a little superficial rhetorick be listened to with regard, perhaps with admiration? And shall not the heart-felt truths of the Gospel warm and affect us? Shall a few spiritless periods, ranged in measure, and coloured with art, mere sound and paint, throw an assembly, sometimes, into joy or grief, or transport it with indignation? And can we lend a careless ear to the word of God, which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart[114]?
Such is the attention due to the word of God, when acknowledged under that character. But
II. A SECOND reason for hearing with caution, is, that the hearers are required to judge for themselves whether what is delivered to them be, indeed, the word of God. Without this care, impostures may be endless, and the effect of them fatal.
When we give up ourselves with an implicit trust to others in mere temporal concerns, the mischief, although considerable, may yet be checked by experience; or, at most, as it respects this life only, is not conclusive and irreparable: but in matters of religion, if we accept that as the word of God, and act upon it, which has no higher authority than the word of fallible and presumptuous men, we may be led into all the visions of fanaticism or superstition, and into all the crimes which so naturally spring from both, to the loss of our future, as well as present happiness.
It pleased God, therefore, from the time that miracles ceased to be the credentials of his ministers in the Christian Church, to secure the faithful from these dangers by the guidance of the written Word; in which, besides special rules there given for the trial of the spirits, whether they are of God, such general principles are delivered as may direct our judgment. And by the help of these, interpreted by the tenor of that word, and the analogy of faith, we may be secured from all deception or surprize.
It is true, all men cannot apply these rules and principles, or not with full knowledge and effect. Woe, therefore, be to him who abuses the incapacity of such hearers, by obtruding on their easy belief his own fancies, as the doctrines of God! But to the abler hearers of the word, to all, indeed, who are competently instructed in their Religion, the task is not difficult to avoid gross and dangerous delusions, to determine for themselves whether the doctrine be of God, or not. This task, I say, is not difficult; yet it implies care and circumspection; and the necessity of discharging it must be allowed a good argument for taking heed what we hear.