A IEWELL FOR THE EAR. By Ro. Wilkinson Rom. 10, 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. To all those that are desirous, not only to be hearers of the word, but doers of the will of god. Grace, mercy and peace in jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. WIlling to satisfy the especial entreaty of some, and for a general benefit to all God's Church, I have set out to public view, this Sermon of preparative, which I preached in my Parish Church at Horton in Kent. I know there is no word of God but hath his profit, 2 Tin. 3, 16 for so saith paul, that all Scripture is profitable, but set this a part and we shall like him that after john 5, 5. he had been diseased, eight and thirty years, lay at the pool of Bethsaida for help, and yet was never the near because he had none to help him, nor knew not how to get in when the angel came down to stir the water: this is the reason why there are at this day so many unfruitful hearers, for that albeit men's souls are even sick for want of knowledge, though they have lain at the well head and by the water of life, and had a continual sound of the Gospel in their ear, yet in six and forty years this ignorance cannot be expelled, because when the Angel of God's will doth preach the word and stir up the water of life, they know not how to move their ears toward it. This therefore (beloved) I have set down as a direction to teach men how to hear, that so often as the pool hereafter shall be stirred, and the word of God preached unto you, y●● may know how to use it to your benefit, therefore learn this Sermon, and profit by all, neglect this and lose all. I have called it a jewel, as Christ called the Gospel a pearl, for without this jewel Mat. 13. 4, you shall never find that pearl, I have fitted it fo● the ear: unto which if ye apply it, it shall be an ornament to the ear as Solomon said of wisdom Prou. 1, 9 it would be as a chain to thy neck, therefore fails not but apply it: he which suffereth the jews to rob the Egyptians of their jewels, and when they after melted them to make a calf, did suffer us to rob them of their spiritual jewel, Let us take he lest for our abuse of the word he stir up the Iewe● again to rob us of this pearl of the Gospel, and cause them to rise again by our fall, as we have risen by theirs. God of his mercy turn our hearts, and teach us to embrace his word as we ought. Amen. Yours in Christ. Ro. Wilkinson. A jewel for the EAR. Matthew 13, 9 He that hath Ears to hear, let him hear. BEcause (beloved) the hearing of the word is so holy a thing, and holy things are not rashly to be attempted: I have thought good in this my entrance to lay down a preparative, that we may know, with what reverence we are come into the temple, with what attention to hear, desire to learn, and care to practise: for well I remember, that when the Isralites were summoned to appear before the Lord in Sina, they were first commanded to sanctify Exod. 19, 10, 11 their hearts, and wash their clothes, even as Moses might not come near the Angel till he had put of his shoes, because Exod. 3, 5 the ground was holy whereon he stood: this reason as nearly toucheth us, for if the place be as holy, the exercise as holy now as then, why should not we come as prepared as they, lest coming with uncircumcised ears and unprepared hearts it be said to us as to him that intruded himself at the wedding, friend, how camest thou hither not having on a Mat. 22, 12 wedding garment? In my first Sermon upon those words of the prophet. For Zion's Esay. 62, 1 sake I will not hold my tongue, I let you know what was the duty of the speaker, now it cometh in good order to tell you the duty of the hearer, for if it could any way concern you to know our duty, much more availeble will it be to learn your own: for a declaration whereof I have chosen this Text, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. I know we are all by nature curious, and every man's nature is to regard an other man's duty before his own, even as Peter said to Christ Maist. what shall john joh. 21, 21 do? To whom Christ roundly answered again, what is that to thee? as if he meant that every man should look to himself and let john alone: so would I persuade you (for that ye are hearers) to learn the hearers duty, and let the speaker alone: for albeit there be such a reference between hearing and speaking, as they may not well be severed, yet the necessity of hearing doth more generally concern all, for God said, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, but he never said, O earth, earth, earth, preach the word of the Lord, for Aaron's robe befits jer. 22, 29 not every man upon the earth, but every man is bound to wear this jewel at his ear, for Faith cometh by hearing, as if Saint Paul had said, where is no hearing there can be no faith: therefore Ro. 10, 17 Abraham spoke out of heaven, and his voice did pierce even the bowels of hell. Luk. 16, 29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them: and when he saith, let them, it is more than a bare toleration, as to say, they may if they will, for it is a flat charge, because god therefore sent Moses & the Prophets into the world that the world of necessity should hear. There is a kind of people that think the whole burden of the Saboth to lie upon the speaker, therefore Christ to weed out that fancy saith likewise, Take heed how Luk. 8, 18. you hear, to show that there is a necessity and an art of hearing as well as of speaking. These two are fitly compared to a lock and a key, for as the key openeth the lock and maketh entrance in at the door, so the tongue of the minister should open the ear of the hearer, that the spirit of knowledge and understanding might pass into the heart: and so it should seem that speaking is ordained to hearing, as the means is directed to the end: for when God had commanded that the skirts of Aaron's rob should be hung about with Pomegranates of silk, and an intercourse of bells between them, the Exod. 28, 34 & 35. reason was added, That so oft as he ministered in the holy place, and went in and out before the Lord, his sound should be heard: but walls and windows cannot hear, therefore by all likelihood that doctrine was intended for men: and if for men why not for you? The holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles not in the shape of heads, that they should only understand the word, nor of hearts that they should only love the word, but like tongues that they should preach the word: so that when God sent out his disciples with tongues, his meaning was that ye should meet them in the half way with ears, and so ye see the correspondence between these two Scriptures, how justly they fit and jump together, for Zion's sake I will not hold my tongue: He that hath ears to hear let him hear. For if it be necessary that we should preach for Zion's sake, than it is requisite that Zion should hear for her own sake. This saying of our Saviour, He that hath ears &c. is the argument by which he doth beg attention for the parable of the Sour, to show that the doctrine it contained, was both so excellent in itself, and so necessary for the world, as if a man were worth but his ears he could not choose but hear: and it may concern either all in general, because all have ears, or the elect particularly because they only have ears to hear. For the farmer, if there were no other reason why men should hear but this, because God hath given an ear, yet it bindeth very strongly: therefore see how God speaketh unto us even in the fleshly instrument of hearing: Christ doth not urge upon us the dignity of himself the speaker, neither the necessity of the doctrine, nor the misery which befalleth to a man by not hearing: but leaving all these arguments, he reasoneth against us even from flesh and blood, and proveth even by the member and instrument of the ear, that men ought to be hearers of the word. We must not think our ears are given us for worldly uses only, to hearken after our profit, to listen to him that can teach us a Gospel of gold, that can tickle our ears with music, or our minds with unhonest Apoc. 2, 3. mirth, but God hath planted the ear for spiritual uses, even as Saint john saith, let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit saith: mark well the words, for that we should mark them he hath seven times repeated them. Let him that hath an ear hear, not what the world saith, nor what the flesh saith, nor what the devil saith, but what the spirit saith: that if both speak at once we should listen to the spirit, & turn the deaf side to the devil: and if the ear be the door of the heart, then fitly might David say, Lift up Psal. 24, 7. your heads ye gates and be ye open you everlasting doors: and not every guest, but the king of glory shall come in. And what marvel is it if the ears were consecrated to holy uses, since there is no part or member of the body or soul which god hath not ordained to some spiritual end. Did god create the eye that it should only be a light to the body, and in no sort give light to the soul? or did he not rather principally create it, that it might tell the soul what beauty was in the visible creatures, that the soul might thereby conjecture what glory is in the invisible god. Did god give man a mouth only to bargain and buy withal, or call for the necessities of this life, or rather to sing of his testimonies and set forth his praise? O god my heart is prepared (saith David) Psal. 108. and so is my tongue: and then he presently inferreth upon it, I will sing and give praise, for what should he do with a tongue that giveth not praise. God hath given us wit and brains, but not only for worldly uses and devices, not to invent instruments of music as jubal did, nor works of brass as Tubalkain did, nor understanding policies as Achitophel did, but to study for heavenly wisdom Eccles. 12. as Solomon did, to meditate of God's laws as David did. God hath given us hearts and affections, and yet not to love the world, but to set our affections wholly one him: in a word, there is no part or member in soul and body which ought not as a Nazarite to be consecrate and vowed to the service of God. Saloman judged those days to be evil days, wherein a man could not use his members to remember the Creator, wherein the keepers should tremble, the strong men should bow, they that look out at the windows should wax dark, wherein the doors should be shut by the base sound of the grinding, and the daughters of singing should be abased, those he judged evil days, as if it were as good in a manner to have no hands as such trembling hands: to have no joints as, such feeble joints: to have no eyes as blind eyes: to be without an ear, as to have a deaf ear: then by the contrary, if these be evil days, wherein a man cannot use his members, they must needs be good wherein God hath given a free use of all. So as it may seem that God in each part or member of a man's body, did intend some special use for his worship and service, unto which if the parts in youth were not employed in the evil days, they would be fruitless and unprofitable: Will those eyes which are wont to wander and gaze after every vanity, will they in the evil days be learned and taught to behold gods will in his precious word, and his great glory in all the creatures? Will the tongue which hath ever been accustomed & enured with all vices, as lying, standering, scurrility and blasphemy, will it in the evil days be taught to sound out the praise of god. Will those ears which have been so accustomed with filth and folly, will they in the evil days be taught to hear the word of God: therefore while we have eyes, let us behold, and he that hath ears let him hear. It is not only a bare gift of nature or work of the womb that we have eyes, ears, and tongues, Act. 17, 28 but it is even the grace of God from above, for in him we live, we move, and have our being: and god bestoweth not his graces for nothing: I say there is no member of a man's body but carrieth in it a print of God's love and testimony of his grace: but above all the rest more specially, are we beholding to him for our eyes and ears, for that by these two as by a channel the knowledge of God is conveyed into our souls, for by the eye we come to the natural man's divinity in surveying the creatures, because as Paul sayeth Rom. 1, 20 the visible things of god that is his eternal power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world, if they were seen by the creation, than our eye is our schoolmaster to bring us to the knowledge of the Creator: but that knowledge is unperfect as the glimmering of a light, but by our ear more specially and expressly we attain to the knowledge of Gods revealed will: so that God never cometh so near a man's soul as when he entereth in by the door of the ear, therefore, the ear is a most precious member if men knew how to use it: and better were it to lose a better member than to want it, if a man lose an eye an arm or a leg, he judgeth himself as a cripple, unworthy to live among men, and fit for no place but for a spittle: and yet these are but maims in the body: but if God take away the use of hearing, it is a sign he is angry indeed, and threateneth a famine to the soul, for the soul feedeth at the ear, as the body by the mouth: therefore better lose all then lose it. Our Saviour Math. 5. 29 30. Christ said, If thy right eye cause thee to offend pluck it out, if thy right hand cause thee to offend cut it off, but he never said, if thine ear offend thee stop it up, for there is a greater use of it then of hands or eyes: for a man may want his hands and have faith, or his eyes and have faith, but hardly can he want his ears and have faith: for Faith cometh by hearing, not by seeing, or feeling, but it entereth in at the ear, and so sinketh down to the heart: therefore He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith, and consider that God gave the ear, that men should profit by hearing, even as he bestowed his talents that the factors should gain and profit by them. We are Gods factors, and our members are his talents, the eye is a talent, the tongue is a talent, and the ear is a talent: for this benefit a Christian hath, that the righteous Mammon is portable, though the unrighteous be not, for where as the men of the world have no wealth but in their chests and barns, the righteous carry theirs about them in their souls and bodies, for every member is a talent, which being faithfully and wisely employed, there is a treasure laid up for the soul in heaven, but being not employed, there is a day of reckoning when every man according to the talent of grace bestowed on him shall be bound to yield an account of his stewardshipp, even of our eyes, our tongues and ears, whereof we make so slender a reckoning. At that time it will finally avail us to say, I employed mine ears to earthly uses, for than it willbe said to us as to him that buried his talent in the earth, Go take him, bind him hand and foot: then shall those hands be chained with fetters, which by example of their refused to glorify god: then shall those eyes be affrighted with horrible and ghastly visions, which in the creatures would never behold the glory of God▪ then shall that tongue be tormemted with unquenchable flames which never sought to set forth the praise of God, and then shall those ears be filled with yelling, with howling, and gnashing of teeth, which never regarded to hear the word of God: therefore whosoever he be to whom God hath given an ear let him hear. But what is that which Christ saith? He that hath an ear to hear: as if there were an ear which were not to hear; we are to understand it as a note of special difference, for though we have all ears, yet all have not ears to hear: but as there is a kind of idle or Idol Pastors which have mouths and speak not, so there is a kind of idle hearers which have ears and hear not, which sit in their seats as images in the glass windows, bending their knees, lifting up their hands, and casting up their eyes, yet after so many years, and so many masses had never the honesty to give one Amen: only this difference there is, that whereas the Saints in the glass windows keep out the wind, these fruitless hearers possess the places wherein they do no good at all: and let it not seem strange, that there should be ears which are not to hear, for Paul sayeth of the jews that God had given them a spirit Rom. 11, 2 of slumbering, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, because they had the instrument but wanted the right use, for only those may be said to have ears to hear which first by ourselves are vowed, and then after by the spirit of God are sanctified to that holy use: so that Christ speaketh especially of the children of the Church, for they only have sanctified and prepared ears. This therefore (beloved) is that we desire to learn how to prepare and provide ourselves, that we may bring ears to hear and hear with profit, lest we depart from the Church, as the five foolish Virgins from the gates of heaven, as good not come as come for no good: therefore the first thing I am to exhort you to is, that we may come together for though private prayer be not unprofitable, and familiar exhortation want not his use, yet our meeting together hath a special blessing promised to it by him which said, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of Mat. 18, 20 them: and indeed our hearing presupposeth coming, for we cannot hear together except we come together, therefore David set coming first, and hearing after, Psal. 34, 11 and said, Come Children and hearken, and I will teach ye the fear of the Lord: so say I to you, first come and then hearken, let it be with you as with David who rejoiced when they said, Come let us go into the house of the Lord, because Psal. 122, 1 one day in God's courts is better than a thousand else where and who had not rather be a doorekéeper in the house of god, then to dwell in the tabernacle of wickedness? Consider what spirit was in David, when he said, that the Sparrow and Swallow were blest, because they might lodge their young so near the altar, as if a poor bird were to be envied for her nest: or rather to teach men that they ought to press as hard to touch but the walls of the temple, as she that desired to touch but the hem of Christ's garment: and that if any on should say, Come let us go into the house of the Lord, men ought to be as the curtains of the Tabecnacle, whereof but one being drawn, all the rest did follow after; the Centurion boasted that he had such servants as if he Mat. 8, 9 said to one, come, he comes, and yet he called them for his own private profit, but God a greater master than the centurion saith come yea and calleth us for our profit, and yet we come not: nay every creeping worm will put us to shame and condemn us, for God spoke Ps. 105, 34 but the word and the Grash-hoppers came, yea and Caterpillars innumerable; but God hath spoken to us many words, and yet our number (God knoweth) is numerable enough: (there is a kind of Caterpillar that cometh to the Church, a sacrilegious vermin devouring holy things, which live by the sweet that they sweat not for, but they come unsent for for God never spoke to them, neither do I commend their diligence in coming, for a blessed thing it were if God should send a west wind to blow them into the sea:) but I speak of those poor creatures whom God never calleth but they come and are obedient, and their obedience ascendeth up to heaven, and from heaven is descended back again to condemn our disobedience, for from heaven God spoke it, that the Ox should come to his owner and the Ass to his Esay. 1, 3. masters cribb, but Israel Gods own people would not understand, nor come: O therefore all ye that are God's people come and hearken; and take this lesson withal, that ye yield not to come as Peter yielded to forgive his brother, seven times and then ha' done; for I say unto you not seven times but seventy times seven times, yea so often as the seventh day shall come upon you come and hollow it. The Athenians came to hear Paul but it was for novilty of his doctrine, as there be (I am in doubt and I fear it) in this place who are come to hear the Sermon only because it is new and strange to have a preacher, but when preaching shall wax stolen, they will not hear the voice of the charmer charm he never so wisely: these men for a brunt are very devout, as he who received the word in stony ground, rejoicing at the first, and hearing it with joy, but that joy endured Mat. 13, 20 but a while, for his zeal possessed him like an ague, very hot for the time but when the fit was over, he fell to his old bias, as the dog to his vomit: remember David saith. Blessed are they that dwell in Psal. 84, 4 God's house. The Church of God is not like a Inn, for once or twice to sojourn in, but it is to dwell in, and dwelling is a continual abiding, we must have our hearts there, our treasure there, and bring our Children there, as the Swallows lays her young by the altar: in a word we must altogether dwell there, that at what time soever Christ shall come he may find us in the temple and not in a Tavern, in the house of prayer, and not in a den of thieves. We need not say (beloved) as Peter said, Let us make us three tabernacles, for God hath built us a temple and tabernacle to our hands, only let us bring ready affections and say, Bonum ect esse hic, it is good for us to be here: which if with assiduity and diligence ye shall perform, then will I say of you as David of himself, The zeal of god's house hath eaten you up but if ye Psal. 69, 9 faint and wax cold, I must say that you have eaten up your zeal, therefore in the name of god let us come with diligence, God's liberality calleth for diligence at your hands, who of all the trees in Paradise did ask for himself but one, of all the days in seven asketh ye but one, if ye will give him another he will accept it as a free-will offering, but but fail not to give him one, and pay it faithfully, who of his own doth ask yet one so sparingly. I know what will be your excuses, ye have married a wife, or bought a yoke of oxen, therefore ye cannot come, but deceive not yourselves, for these are no excuses? shall a wife keep you back from following Christ: yet better it were for a man to live alone then to have such an helper: what though Adam said, Man Gen. 2, 24 shall forsake father and mother to cleave Luk. 14, 26 to his wife, yet Christ said, a man must hate father and mother and wife to come to him. But ye will plead that ye have bought a yoke of oxen? Postponetur Deus bonibus qui nos aequavit Angelis saith an old writer? Will you set God behind your Oxen who hath made you equal with Angels? These things are good: but in their order and due place, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, and then let wives and Oxen follow after: for even our necessary businesses and lawful affairs if they hinder us from God's service, are turned into sin, even as the pure waters in Egypt were turned into blood. If lawful businesses may not hinder our coming to the Church of God, then much less may idle sports and unlawful games detain us: if bargaining and wiving may not excuse us, much less will piping and dancing. The Saboth is a day of holy rest, not of unholy riot: the Iraelites might not gather their Manna upon it, and may we Exo. 16, 26 run a rioting upon it? What would they do to them whom they find profaning Gods Saboth with drunken delights, who stoned him to Nú. 15, 26 death whom they found gathering sticks for needful use? But this is our corruption of nature, every idle sport provokes us to sacrilege, to rob God of his glory in his Sabbath, and sacrifice it to the Devil: Diabolus te vocat et venis, Mundus te vocat et venis, Caro te vocat et venis, Cultus Dei te vocat et non venis, saith an ancient father. The devil calleth by temptation and ye yield unto it, the world calleth and ye listen to it, the flesh calleth and ye come to it, but the worship of God calleth and ye care not for it. Diogenes to try the nature of the Athenians, disguised himself unhandsomely, danced rudely, and set his voice to sing ilfavordly, and the people came flocking about him: behold (saith he) the nature of this people, so oft as I took upon me to speak of an honest life or virtuous conversation, they passed by me as a visited person, and left me alone, but now I frame myself to make sports like a fool, they like a flock of fools come pressing about me: there is nothing that chokes men's zeal so much as that they hunt so greedily after vanity of the world, neither was there any reason why Esau was profane but because he was a man of the field, for while he was hunting for venison abroad, jacob catched up the blessing and birthright at home, even as often times it falleth out that while God's blessing is a dealing in the Church, the people are rebelling and rioting in the street, therefore come to the Church and God will bless you. When you have obtained of your selves to come, the next thing it is to perform attention, for David saith not, come children and hear, but come and hearken: and if hearing were enough to satisfy a Saboth day, then might ye drive in your oxen too for they can apprehend an outward sound as well as ye, but though they have ears, yet they have not ears to hear. In the Scripture hearing and hearkening is all one, and our hearkening it is Opus animi non Auris, as one saith, a work of the mind and not of the outward ear, a diligent observing in the mind of that which is said, therefore the grammarians, do fitly signify attention under the word. Animaduertere, ut animum adverteremus non aurem that we should not only turn our ears but set our mind to it: but that can a beast never do because he hath no mind, and he that bringeth his ears to Church and leaveth his mind at home he cometh like a beast. Our attention have five great enemies, The enemies of attention. the first is a straying thought, when all the powers of our soul should wait upon the voice of the preacher, then are our minds in our coffers, or in our pastures, or where they should not be: wherefore pray for a steady and stayed heart. The second is a wandering eye, gazing after every picture, upon every mote, or fly, and rolling up and down in every corner, for as Solomon saith the eyes of a fool are in Pro. 17, 24 Eccl. 2, 14. every corner. But a wise man's eyes are in his head The third is a peerless shifting and stirring of the body, a fumbling with hands, a shuffling with the feet, a rising and removing from place when there is no cause to provoke us: and let it not seem strange that these small trifles should hinder our attention, for even the little birds of the air did pick up the seed of the word, lest it should take root and go down to the heart. The fourth is an unreverent talking and uncivil laughing in the Church, as if the Temple of God were a place of mart or exchange, where every man might single out his companion and freely discourse de omni ente & non ente, of every matter & occasion offered & ministered, these are they that make the temple of God a den of thieves. The fift is a service & senseless sleeping, for some there be who are no sooner in their seats but their hearts are a sleep, as if they came to see visions, & looketh with jacob to see the Angels going up, when as they might as well see Eutichus falling down: Therefore quicken your senses, rouse up your dullness, and remember him which said to his disciples, Can yea not watch with me Mat. 26, 40 one hour? To these five ye may add (if ye please) a sixth which of all the rest is most scandalous and offensive, and that is a shameful departing out of the church and violent breaking from the congregation, wherein a man doth as it were openly protest, that he is exceeding weary, & hath but too much for his money, so that joseph was never more willing to departed out of prison, than he out of the Church, nor Simeon better content to die when he said. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. But such men can hardly departed in peace, for seldom it is when they leave not behind them, both the grace of our Lord jesus Christ, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding. After attention is required remembrance, to lay it up in the storehouse of our memory, for what availeth it to be attentive for the time and so soon as we be gone to forget all, to suffer the birds to pick up the seed which Christ had sown before. Saint james compareth such a man to one beholding his face in a glass, who goeth his way and forgetteth immediately what manner of man he was: and fitly are such ears resembled to a sieve, which while ye dip it in the jam. 1, 23 24. water receiveth it in at a thousand holes, but take it up, and the water runneth out faster than ever it came in: so is it with forgetful hearers, they mark attentively, conceive presently, and ●or a time are touched inwardly, but the next toy driveth all out again, but Blessed are Luk. 11, 28 they that hear the word of God and keep it: it should seem that Peter carried such a sieve in his head, else how could the devil sift him as wheat. for no sooner had Christ forewarned him that he would forswear him, but the devil sifted the word out of his ears, and he forgot it, and so not remembering the words was the cause of Peter's apostasy, for so soon as he remembered the words, the text saith he went out and wept bitterly: therefore let us not only hear but remember too, for that spirit which saith O my people Psal. 78, 1 Prou. 3, 1 hear my law, saith likewise my Son forget not my law. Therefore God prescribed helps of memory to the Isralites, commanding them to bind his words upon their hands for a sign, that they should be as frontlets between their eyes, that they should write them upon the posts of their houses, and on their gates, and in a word that they should use all helps against forgetfulness, for that was God's meaning and no more: and if we seek for a help indeed, then conference is the help, when a man is delighted to talk of that at home which hath been spoken at the Church, for it may be that will pierce into the head at a second repeating, which at the first report would not, even as a nail may be driven in at a second or third stroke, which could not at the first: and indeed it is God's commandment to the Isralites, that they should talk of his law among their children when they were in their houses, when they taulked or else walked by the way, as also at their uprising and down laying: therefore let us think that this charge concerneth us likewise, and say with David. Our tongue shall talk of thy righteousness Psa. 72, 24 all the day long that at what time soever Christ shall come he may find us talking of his testimonies, as when he overtook his disciples walking to Emaus, he found them communing of his death and passion. After attention and memory the last and chief point is to lay it to the heart, for God especially respecteth the heart, and if that be wanting he misseth it at the Esa. 29, 13 first, and saith, This people honoureth me with their lips, or with their ears, but their heart is far from me. It is a small thing to remember only what was said, it is but a sign of a good memory at the best, and if that be sufficient then let the devil come into the temple too, for he hath memory more then enough, to quote any Scripture against Christ, or whosoever shall encounter him, and many hypocrites which hang upon the Church have a certain swimming in their brain, a speculative divinity, by which they can hold talk at a table to discourse of any point Mat. 4. in Religion, or course out a controversy to the proof, but God is not served with wit and memory, therefore he saith further, Thou shalt lay up these words in thy heart, and in thy soul To lay God's word to the heart is to take hold of it by the heart and apply it to the conscience, as when we hear of god's mercy to be ravished with joy▪ and when we hear of his judgements to be stricken with fear▪ when we hear of his promises to rise up in hope, when we hear of our sins to repent and loathe ourselves. This is the laying of the word to our heart, and thus did Marie when she heard what strange things the shepherds reported from the Angels: Saint Luke saith, She kept all those sayings and pondered them in her heart, A special Luk. 2, 10 help to this is an often revolving and meditating in our minds of that we have heard, for David did not only talk of God's testimonies amongst his friends, but being alone likewise did meditate of his law, for so he saith, that in God's law was his continual meditation and that both evening and morning, and seven times in a day, and it hath been the practice of God's saints from time to time, to enter into continual meditation of his mercy and of his judgements. It is commended in Isaac that every evening he went Goe 24, 63 Esay 5, 12, 14. out to meditate: in the law those beasts were only clean which chewed the cud, by which was figured a spiritual meditating & ruminating of heavenly things: and it is the cause of much uncleanness in men's lives, and of much judgement upon the world, because they meditate not of God's ways. Indeed saith the prophet, The harp and viol, the Timbrel & pipe, and wine are in their banquets, but the works of God they consider not, therefore hell hath enlarged itself and opened her mouth, and they that rejoiced shall go down into it: and so saith the Prophet jeremy. That the whole land is fallen into desolation because there is none that considereth in his heart jer. 12, 11 Therefore in the name of God (beloved) let us prepare our ears and hearts, that we may first hear, then remember, and last of all lay up the word in our hearts, for this is the right hearing, and he that heareth hath not only ears, but ears to hear, I would ye did consider that every man by his obedience in this regard is judged of what flock he is, for so saith Christ, My sheep hear my joh. 10, 27 voice: so that if a man be desirous to hear, then strait he is judged to be of Christ's flock: but if the word be unsavoury, and breed no delight in his heart: it is a shrewd presumption that that man is a Goat: And great reason we have to delight in God's voice, for there is no word proceeding out of his mouth, but it savoureth of mercy and salvation to the soul, for so Cant. 5, 13 the Church testified of Christ, that his lips are like to Lilies dropping down pure myrrh, and how then should God endure our contempt who prefer the devil before him: nay God will indite us not only of contempt but of mockery too, for if we shall beseech God to supply the means of hearing, and send down a prophet amongst us, and when that Prdphet cometh, shall shut our ears against him, what is that but a mock? Besides what an unreasonable thing is it that we desire God to hear us, who could never vouchsafe to hear him, if we stand in any need of God how clamorous are we and importunate upon him. Hear my prayer O Lord, bow down thine ear unto my supplicatton, and why hidest thou thy face and forgettest all our afflictions, and if God seem a little to delay us, how hasty are we upon him, come Lord jesus, come quickly and make no long tarrying my God, and O god make haste to help us: but when God speaks to us there is none that turneth his ear, as if we had him in a string, that he were bound to us and not we to him: therefore it shall come to pass that we shall pray and he shall not hear us, for so he threateneth. Because I have called and ye refused, Prou. 7, 24 26, 27, etc. I will also laugh at your destruction, and mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh like a sudden desolation, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when affliction and anguish shall come upon you, then shall they call upon me but I will not answer, they shall seek me early but they shall not find me, because they hated knowledge. God shall take from you either the preaching of the word as he threateneth by Amos. I will Amo. 8, 11 send a famine into the land, not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. Or God shall take from you the Preacher of the word, when ye shall run from coast to coast, and shall find none to preach peace unto your consciences, or at the least god shall take away the gifts of the Preacher because of the hardness of your hearts. It is a notable observation of Saint Gregory that God doth sometime multiply his gifts and his spirit upon the Preacher because the hearer is desirous to learn: and sometime again he doth take away his gifts and his spirit from the Preacher even for a plague and judgement upon the people, because they neither desire to hear or care to learn. Therefore do ye prepare your hearts and ears to hear and I doubt not but god will multiply his spirit and send a blessing upon these my labours. And of this let me advise you before hand, that no one of you at any time presume to set his foot within these walls, who first setteth not down with himself to practise in his life what here he heareth with his ear. Some come not to have their lives resormed, but to have their ears tickled as at a play: some come for novelty, some for fashion, some to sleep, some to see, and some to be seen, but few to practise: but let these things be far from you, for our saviour Christ saith. He that is of God, beareth gods words: (nay he goeth further in the john. 8, 47 same place speaking to the unbelieving jews, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God, and Saint james jam. 1, 22 saith, that he deceiveth himself who is only a hearer of the word and not a doer: for God's word is a leaven, whose nature is to turn the whole lump into his own nature, to season and make it like itself as when you have heard a Sermon of humility to show forth the fruit of that Sermon in your lives and conversasions: when you have heard a Sermon of repentance to be stricken in heart with a feeling of your sins: when you have heard of God's judgements against blasphemy, covetousness, lying, stealing, against usury or profaning of the Sabbaths, every man to set downs with himself I will surely (with God's help) purge myself of this and that corruption, and amend in myself what I now see is amiss, then may we say of you ye are our Sermon as Paul said to the Corrinthians ye are our Epistle 2 cor. 3, 2, When whatsoever doctrine hath flowed out of our mouths doth spring up as freshly in your lives: let us therefore say with David, O Lord prepare the hearts of this people unto thee, send down thy holy spirit into our hearts and into our ears, govern us when we come to hear, for paul may plant, and Apollo water, but thou must give increase, and in vain shall the voice of the preacher beat upon the door of our ears, unless thou fill our hearts with thy spirit, which we beseech thee of thy infinite mercy and goodness to perform that we may proceed from grace to grace, until we come to the state of glory unto which the Lord of his mercy bring us. To the son and to the holy ghost, (three persons but one God) be ascribed all praise dominion and glory now and for evermore. Amen. Finis.