Chapter I: FIRST reason for this attention, that what is spoken, is delivered

to them, _as the word of God_.

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