562 USEFULN7:`5S OF THE PASSIONS. III. Wemay learn from this discourse, " howmuch ii is the business of a minister ofthe gospel, to engage the affections ofhis hearers, and to bring them over to the service of God and reli- gion." It is granted that the first work is to inform the under- standing, to teach mankind what they are to believe concerning the great God, and what duties they owe to him. To this end the preacher must not only draw his doctrines from the light of nature, but from the wordof God, and bring them down to the capacities ofhis hearers. It is his constant business to ex- plain the word of God to inen, to propose the naked truth with the strongest reasonsto support it : He must endeavour to strike light into the mind, and, convince the reason and judgment of men ; he must make it appear that they are guilty before God, and that there is no wayof relief or hope, but in andby Jesus, the great Mediator, and thus lead sinful and perishing men into the knowledge and faith of Christ, as an all-sufficient. Saviour: All this is a necessary and indispensible part of his work ; but it is not the whole of it. When the understanding is enlightened, the passionsmu;t alsóbe addressed ; for God has wrought these pow- ers into human nature, that they might be the vital and vigorous springs of actions and duties. If the judgment be never so much convinced, yet while the affections remained unmoved, the work of religion will be begun with difficulty, and will drive on but very heavily. This the prophets and the apostles well knew ; and the great God, who employed them, knew it too, and therefore he sent them armed with the powers of natural and divine oratory, to reach the in- most affections, to penetrate the heart, and to raise holy commo- tions in the very centre of the soul. What mean all the pro- mises of the gospel, but to work upon our hope, and to raise our highest expectations? What means the dreadful language of so many severe threatenings, but to shake us out of our security, and to rouse our fears ? If there had been no such principles. as hope and fear in man, I ant persuaded there would scarce, have been any such things as promises and threatenings in the book of God. The word of the Lord is compared to a fire and a hammer ; Jer. xxiii. 29. Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? And it ought to be delivered and pronounced by the preachers of it, in such a manner, as may break the rocky heart of stubborn sin- ners, as may fright them from their beloved iniquities, by the terror of everlasting burnings. The holy scripture is a cabinet of divine curiosities, full of admirable allurements to invite and entertain awakened minds : It shouldbe so happily unfolded and displayedby the preachers of it, as to represent, in a noble manner, the amazing grace and love of God, and the blessings of the gospel; and that with
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