Name of god in beating bisT O K D. 1 67 fhould they corne? i am able to underftand as much in fuck a Point as can be laid : and when I have come and heard many times, I have heard but that Iknew before, and upon that they think there is no ufe of coming to hear : Now this is a great miftake ; when you come tohear the Word, you do not come alwaies to hear what you did not know, it may be fornetimes God may dart in fomething that you did not think of before, or to fully underftand ; but fuppo{e it be not fo,you are to come to it as an Ordinance of God , for the conveyance of Spiritual good toyour fouls. Youwil fay, Cannot we fit at borne, and read aSermon ? 2 But hath God appointed that the great Ordinance for converting,and the edifyingofSouls in the way to E-ernal Life ? True, there is fome ufe of it ; but the great Ordinance is the Preaching of the Word, 'Faith come' by hearing- (the Scriptuie faithpand never by reading : )So that thoughwhen you come to hear, youdo not hear that wifich youheard not before,, yet you come toattend upon this Ordinance for the conveyanceof fome fpiritual good that ( ic may -be) bath not beenconveyed before, or in a further degree than it hath been conveyed 'before : and fo you ihould come tohear the Word with your hearts poffeft with that Meditation, That it is the Word of God, and the great Ordinance that God hath appointed for the conveyance of Spiritual good ; fo that I come now in obedience to God , and in this I do teftifie my refpdt to God, that I wil attend-up- on this Ordinance of His for the conveyance of fpiricual good tome; and although I 'may think that this or the other means may do thedeed as well, yet becaufe God bath appointed this to be his Ordinance, -Therefore in obedienceto him I wil attend upon this means rather than upon other means : as you know gVarnan hethought the other waters=AvOuld have been as good as.thewaters of7ordan to have healed him, but if God wil ap- point him the watersofYordart, that they fhould heal him ra- , ther than other waters , he muff wail' there : No queftim but other waters had as much Natural Vertue in them as they had, buthecaufe the vvarers of7ordan Were the Ordinance that God for that time had appointed to cure his Leprofie withal, be Bluftcome and waft), in thofe waters rather than in any other : Sot ,
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