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SERMON X.

The Usefulness, Authority, and Effect of Preaching.

Preached at an Ordination at St. Paul's, &c.

SERM.

X.

ROM. x. 14, 15, 16.

How shall they hear without a
Preacher ?

And how fhall they preach, except they be fent?
As it is written, How beautiful are the
Feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace,
and bring glad Tidings of good Things!
But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For
Ifaias faith, Lord, who hath believed our
Report?

TH

HE Heads which I propofe to draw from thefe Words requiring as much Time as I dare prefume will be allowed me (from the enfuing Solemnity) and as I have only Occafion to treat of them at present as they

ftand

X.

ftand feparately by themselves, without exa- SER M. mining the Relation they bear to the Context; I fhall not detain you with any Introduction concerning the Occafion of them, but proceed immediately to obferve four Things which they obviously point out to us, viz.

I. FIRST, That it is the unspeakable Favour of GOD, that in communicating to us his Mind, and in revealing his Will, he makes ufe of the Ministry of Men like unto ourselves. How shall they bear without a Preacher?

II. SECONDLY, That left these Men, by being like ourselves, fhould want Authority to enforce the Word they preach, he has thought fit to dignify them with a Divine Commiffion, thereby to separate and distinguish them from the rest of Mankind. How fall they preach, except they be fent?

III. THIRDLY, That notwithstanding both these things, viz. though those who preach the Gospel are Men like ourselves, and so have nothing of Terror in them to frighten Men from hearing them; and yet are dignified with a Divine Commiffion, and fo want no Authority to perfuade Men; yet their Preach

X.

SER M. ing has not that due Effect it ought to have. They have not all obeyed the Gofpel; for Ifaias fays, Lord, who hath believed our Report?

IV. FOURTHLY, That though Preaching be generally fo unfuccessful; yet there still is, and ever will be, fufficient Encouragement, for Ministers to be inftant in preaching the Word. For how beautiful are the Feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace, and bring glad Tidings of good Things!

I. FIRST, I am to obferve that it is the unfpeakable Favour of GOD, that in communicating to us his Mind, and in revealing his Will, he makes ufe of the Miniftry of Men, like unto ourselves. And this I obferve from those Words in the Text, How fhall they hear without a Preacher? A Queftion that plainly implies, that unless the Word be preached unto us by the Miniftry of Man, we must continue in Ignorance; having no other Means of coming to the Knowledge of it. Not that it is impoffible for GOD to communicate it to us himself, either by a Voice from Heaven, or by the Ministry of an Angel, or after fome other extraordinary Manner: But because the preaching of it by Man is the only Method he has

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X.

ever made use of in revealing it to Mankind. S ER M. We cannot but obferve, that as this was an Inftitution of his own Appointment, fo it is a Means he has always confined himself to, as well upon extraordinary as ordinary Occafions. I do not mean by this that God never revealed his Will immediately to Man: For that must neceffarily be fuppofed; fince they who were the first Declarers of it to the World, could be inftructed in it themselves no otherwife than from Heaven. And therefore though GOD has made known his Mind to fome as it were by Word of Mouth, to others by Vifions and Dreams, and to others again by the fecret Whisperings of his Holy Spirit; yet this is no Objection to the Pofition laid down; fince they, who were thus thought worthy of fuch extraordinary Revelations, were no others than those whom GOD raised up to be Ministers of his Word, and to whom he revealed it in this Manner, on Purpose that they should be Messengers of it to the People. So that such immediate Revelations made to particular Men, is itself an Argument that whenever GOD thinks fit to communicate his Will to a People or Nation, or to the whole Body of Mankind in general; he judges no Inftrument fo proper to convey it by as the Mouths of their Fellow Creatures,

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SERM.

X.

Nor has this Method been made Use of by him, only as adapted to this or that particular Difpenfation; but is an Institution that commenced from the Fall of Man, and fuch as will continue till his Confummation in Glory. In the Ante-diluvian World, when the Spirit of GOD had for a long Time ftrove with the Sons of Men, he raised up Noah, a Preacher of Righteousness, as the laft and likelieft Means to reclaim them, Gen. vi. compared with 2 Pet. ii. 5. After the Flood, when the Earth was again overSpread by the Sons of Noah, GOD chofe to himself a particular Family, the Holy Patriarchs, those lively Examples of Faith and Righteousness, whom he appointed and ftiled his Prophets and his Anointed, Gen. xx. 7. Pfalm cv. 15. making them as it were itinerant Preachers of his Word, whithersoever they went. After this again, when the Lord felected the Children of Ifrael to be a peculiar Treasure to him above all People, and conftituted them a Kingdom of Priests, and an Holy Nation, Exod. xix, 5, 6. yet even these were not permitted to receive the Word from God himself; but Mofes only was called up to the Mount, and to him alone GoD gave the Law, making him the Instrument

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