otherwise they will be Fruitless If you pray for Knowledge and never take pains by Reading and Study to get it or for the Mortification of Sin and never Labour to Subdue and Kill it or for Reformation of your Life and never set about the Reforming of it your Prayers will be to little purpose It 's as if a Man should pray to be Cured of a Disease and yet never use Physick nor Dyet or Exercise to Cure it Or like such as the Greek Heathen Orator speaks of who seeing great Hailstones falling down on their Heads Prayed to be secured from them but would not stir a foot Gods usual way is to give in Blessings to us concurring with him in the use of means and he will not vary from his Ordinary Method unless upon most special Occasions 5. Look after your Prayers to see what becomes of them and what returns what Answer you have of them Thus did David Ps 5.3 and 58.8 Habackuck having Prayed stands upon his watch sets himself on his Tower to see what God would say to him There are many times such Dispensations of God towards us which we might see did Ecchoe to our Prayers if we did well observe them Do not then shoot out your Prayers as Children do their Arrows who shoot them away and never look after them more But rather as Archers that shoot them up into the Air and stand still waiting for their coming down again 6. In all your Prayers let Prayers be mixt and have a good share and due proportion in them Do not shuffle up Praeiss into a Corner of your Prayers do not croud nor huddle them up into a scant and narrow Compass as most do or thrust them into the very End and Conclusion of your Prayers But let them bear a part throughout the whole Duty CAAP. XXVI Of Desiring the Sincere Milk of the Word AS a New-Born Babe desire the Sincere Milk of the Word that you may grow thereby The Word is as Milk go then to it as Children to the Breast with an Appetite but be sure it be Milk that you desire and not Froth Power and Virtue not the Froth of empty words of Rhetorick which are not to be accounted as Sermon Milk it 's plain song always that makes the best Musick Desire that Milk alway which is most wholsom not that which is most luscious and best pleases a dainty or curious Pallat. 2. Do not satisfie your self with some weak Velleities and faint wishings or whimperings after the Breasts of the Word but let your desires after this sincere Milk be strong and earnest accompanyed with Diligent Endeavours after it and suck the Breasts well that you may have it desire it by the effectual fervent Prayer of Faith This is indeed that real and spiritual sucking which is required of Newborn Babes in Christ The Prayer of Faith is the Mouth or the two Lips whereby we suck Spiritual Milk and draw in Heavenly influences and Divine Sweetness from the Word Ask and ye shall have Math. 7.7 8. but then this asking must be in Faith The Mother opens the Breast when the Child Cryes after it If you thirst after this Heavenly Milk of the Word God will give it his Spirit will Communicate sweet Inflows to your Soul he sometimes lays Wormwood to the Breasts of Providence to wean us from Creature-Comforts but he would never have us wean'd from the Milk of the Word while we are in this Life but would have us lye continually at the Breast of the two Testaments Children while they are in health are almost continually Sucking and never satisfied but while they are at the Breast If your Soul be in a good healthy Condition you will not be well satisfied but while you are lying at the Dugs of Ordinances at these Spiritual Milk-pales as Job calls the Breasts 3. If after you have lyen long at the Breasts waited long at the Ordinances you find nothing come no Inflows no virtue no refreshments or comfort from them so that they seem to be dry Breasts yet give them not over as some are too apt to do thinking it in vain to wait any longer when as the fault is in themselves not in the Word and Ordinances they are full Breasts but these poor Creatures cannot act faith to draw God may see cause sometime to with-hold this Spiritual Milk to withdraw his influences and put forth no virtue or efficacy in the Word yet do not give over waiting continue still in the diligent use of the means of Grace he will please to let down this Milk in the end what you do not find at one time you may at another he will at length smile on you in the Ordinances and let you have Evangelical Fruitions If you did live much by Faith you would find these full Breasts flow plentifully 4. Think that while you are in this World you will have need of this Milk of the Word need of Ordinances There are some fond Christians that think they are above Ordinances which are only for Babes and Punies that they are past the Milk of the Word and are grown too old to suck the breasts I wish they were ever new-born Babes in Christ which is to be feared they never were tho' they conceit themselves to be tall and perfect Men and Women in Christ I have read of one Philinus that never fed of any other meat or drink all his life but only Milk All the true Children of God must certainly while they live here feed on no other food but only Scripture-milk God will not nourish our Souls by immediate influences and communications from himself till we come to the heavenly Land that flows with Milk and Honey and to sit at God's own Table at the Supper of the Lamb in the Kingdom of Glory When the new-born Babes are grown to a perfect stature and are perfectly wean'd from the World which will not be till this Mortal shall have put on Immortality then and not till then shall we have immediate communion with God which is the very sweet of Heaven The Pot of Manna must continue in the Ark of the Church till we come to the Celestial Canaan 5. The end of desiring this Milk must be that you may grow thereby We are nourisht and made to grow by the same things whereby we were first bred The Milk by which the Infant is nourisht is but the blood of which it was framed in the womb further concocted in the breasts and turn'd white there So it is only the same Word by which we were spiritually begot that doth cause us spiritually to grow For indeed all the Ordinances which are the Souls nourishment are nothing else but the Word it self in several forms or the subject matter of the Word The Sacrament of the Lords Supper which was specially appointed for the Souls nourishment and growth in grace is but the Word in a more sensible form or as the same meat otherwise drest and
more but that you may be affected more 4. Hear the Word attentively and diligently because it is your Life Deut. 32.46 The things spoken do concern the Soul and are most Momentous how slightly and carelesly do multitudes of People hear the word Preached as if it were a matter of small concern Which might justly cause God to take away the word from us when the Mother sees that the Child doth but play with the Breasts she puts them up 5. Labour to be affected with the word I mean not with some elegant Expressions or pleasing Comparisons that are brought in a Sermon to tickle the fancy of a Delicate Hearer If these only affect you you get no good but suck wind rather than Nourishment The Bee lights not on the Rose which hath the freshest Colour and sweetest Smell but on the Thyme which is an Herb of little beauty A Devout Soul rests not on Truths curiously deckt with Eloquence but upon plain naked Truths to fetch Honey from It likes the most saving weighty and powerful Truths the Spiritualness of the matter the Holiness of Soul-Searching Doctrines such Doctrines as beat down Lust and Corruption But a formalist is only delighted with the History the Elegance of Language the quaint Notions or the Rational Evidence of the Discourse and so rests in the outward shell and tasts not the Kernell If these things only do affect you in hearing you did never yet really tast the goodness of Sermon-Milk or the sweetness and pretiousness of Christ in a Sermon which if once you had tasted how would your Heart be affected and ravisht with it It 's only the tasting of the Hony-Comb that makes one affected with it and to long after more 6. Ponder upon what you hear lay it up in your Heart so as to retain it Thus did Mary by Christs sayings she kept them all and pondered them in her Heart Luke 2.19 The word is a Jewel lock it up in the Cabinet of your Heart It 's pondering on the word in the Heart that doth make it Nourishment to you by Digesting of it and turning it into the Blood and Spirits of Holiness This is the Squeezing of the Hony-Comb of the word into the Heart which makes it yield abundant store of refreshing sweetness Yea and presseth it so that it slides down deep into the Heart so as it is made to abide there When the Minister hath laid on a healing plaister Meditation binds it fast on makes it stick and abide which otherwise would rub off again presently without doing any good it fastens on our Hearts the truths which we have heard 7. If you would profit by the word preached then pray for the Minister before you go to Church Col. 4.3 Eph 6 19. Pray to God to direct him to speak a word in Season to you that might be suitable to your Condition and work upon your Heart I am perswaded that one reason why People reap no more benefit by the word is because they do not before pray for the Minister or for a Blessing on the word that he shall preach to them Consider that thus praying for him you pray for your self if the Mother have a full Breast it is the benefit of the Child St. Austin praised God for furnishing his Nurse with Milk when he had perished without it O pray to God constantly before you go to Church that he would enable the Minister to do the work of a Spiritual Nurse well and then you will find that you will have matter to praise God for the good that you shall reap after by his Church Nursery 8. When you come home retire your self a little and repeat over to your self the most practical truths which you have heard make Application of them to your self and press them home upon your own Heart Think not how the Doctrine you have heard doth fit others this hinders your profiting by the word but think how it fits your self CHAP. XXIX Of Receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 1. NEglect no opportunity of being a guest at this Sacred Feast of the Lords Supper and take care that in all your Approaches to it you come worthily This would be a prime and most Soveraign means to your living well which is the design of all the Advice that I have given you O what Excellent and Heavenly Lives did the Primitive Christians lead while they received the Sacrament every day or every Lords Day They were thereby inflamed with such Zeal and Holy Courage that they were said to come from the Sacrament like Lyons breathing fire and hence in Cyprians time they had it every day that they might be the more animated to lay out their Blood for Christ This Sacrament saith Chrysostom is for the Noble Eagles that would have their thoughts on high it helps Souls mightily to mount up with wings as Eagles to run and not be weary to fly swiftly through difficulties and duties and to make them ascend up in a fiery Chariot of Love Christians may hereby be brought unto and preserved in a Holy Galantry of Spirit and briskness and liveliness in well doing and to move as in the Chariots of Aminadab with nimble vigor The Elixir of Christs Blood in the Sacrament will make the believer full of Life and Spirits Hereby a Christian saith Bernard is made more meek to be reproved more patient to labour more fervent to love more ready to obey and more Devout to give God thanks In a word your Heart by this feast of fat things and refined Wines will be more strengthned to the practice of all Holy Virtues to the mastery of all Corruptions and to the Conquest of all Temptations and support to go on in its work and way without sinking under its burthen 2. Besides how could you think that you live well if you should live in the neglect or omission of so great a Duty as this of Receiving the Sacrament which was the Request and Legacy of your dying Saviour with strict Command appendant and annext thereunto Do thus in Remembrance of me Would not that be a living in Rebellion against his Law a slighting of his Body and Blood while you have a Command to Communicate therein Unpreparedness may be your Sin but cannot be a warrantable plea for abstaining 3. Now that you may so make your Addresses hereunto as to come worthily be careful of these four following particulars 1. To know and understand the Nature and Ends of this Feast 2. To be such a Person as the Master of the Feast would have his guests to be 3. To make your self ready before you come to it 4. To behave your self so at it as becomes a guest at that Royal Banquet CHAP. XXX Of the Nature of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ENdeavour to get a right understanding of the Nature of this Divine Mystery so as to know what you feed on there All People love to have light when they are at a Feast to see
is it not pitty such ingenious youths should be lost for want of Instruction and Correction Let Parents and Governours Tremble lest the Blood of Relations Souls should lye at their Door and both be Tormented for wilful neglects Even Heathens had great care of Childrens Education it was actionable in the Law-Courts among the Romans to neglect this yea if the Son was Debauched the Father was sued since it was supposed the Sons Miscarriage was through the Fathers Default But that might be a mistake Yet God that sees all things and whose Judgment is always according to truth will Commence a Suit against and Condemn the careless Parent Lord when will Parents have as much care of their Childrens Souls as Bodies Yea express as much tenderness to a Child as to a Beast You labour hard to provide for them Food and Rayment to put them into callings that they may live like Men in the World and are their Souls of no Worth Is there not another World worth thinking of looking after Have you not many helps the Bible Catechismes good Books Ministers to Move Admonish and instruct you in training up your Children Do you not promise to do this for them at their Baptism Could you be content to see a Mastiff Dog drag away your Child pull out his Entrals feed upon him and not stir a foot speak a word to rescue him O miserable parents O Cruel Tygers Worse than Sea monsters Lam. 4â— that draw out the Breasts they give suck to their young ones and have not you a word to speak not a breath to breathe in Prayer not a Hand to reach out to them to pluck them from this Gerberus this Dog of Hell Oh where 's Grace yea where is Nature The Lord pitty these merciless Parents For shame learn your Duty and do it and take this Book for an help And you that are Children if Parents neglected their Duty do not you neglect God and your Souls They lookt no further than your Preferment in the World but do you look after an Everlasting Happiness in the other World Some commended Patricius Augustines Father for Educating his Son a Scholar who became so Famous a Father in the Church Alas said he my Father sought only to make me a Rhetorician not a Christian for he was an Heathen But whatever your Parents Trained you up for Law or Physick or a Trade Study Christianity If thy Parents were Carnal Lament it Act Faith in Christ to get Guilt taken off thy Fathers House and double thy Diligence for thy own Soul and for thy Seed If thy Parents were godly devoted thee to God set thee a good Example instructed prayed for thee O make much of the Covenant of Parents plead it embrace it and see thy Heart and Life be Squared by it Else thy Priviledges will be a Testimony against thee another Day 〈…〉 â—â—shop of Millain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the primitive 〈…〉 or white Garâ—â—â— was put upon the party Baptized and the Minister 〈◊〉 take this white and immaculate Vestment and see thou king it forth without Spot at the Judgment Seat of Christ Withal he tells of one Elpidophorus being Baptized afterwards proving a prophane Wretch the Minister produced this Garment saying This Linnen shall 〈◊〉 thee at Christs coming which is witness of thy â—…tacy You young people make a great account that you were made Christians in Baptism and indeed it stands in good stead in your Infant-State by vertue of your Parents Covenant but being grown up you stand upon your own Legs and must personally renew your Baptismal Covenant or expect no benefit by it Baptism will not save you without the Answer of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 Tit. 3. â— The lover of Regeneration will not avail to Adult Persons without the renewing of the Holy Ghost You must be born again of water and of the Spirit or you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 To which Austin Subscribes saying Nihil profuit Simoni Mago visibilis Baptismus cui Sanctificatio invisibilis desit you know Simon Magus was in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Act. 8.13.22 though he was Baptized You are to thank God for External Priviledges and Religious Education they are Signal Mercies not common to all Bucholzer thankt God that he was Bred up under Melancthon Mr. Whately under Mr. Dod yea a Plato that he was Pupil to Socrates But rest not here be not satisfied except the unfeigned faith dwell in thee 2 Tim 1.5 also that was in thy pious Auncestors Mind their Godly Examples and do not contradict them A King of Poland was wont to carry the Picture of his Renowned Father in a â—â—ate of God about his Neck when he went about any notable Exploit kissing it he said God grant I may 〈◊〉 nothing Remissely 〈…〉 of so 〈…〉 you 〈…〉 Heb. 6.12 who through Faith and patience do now inherit the promises 〈…〉 to be â—pish imitators of their outward Acts but see you have the same Spirit of Faith Love fear of God Repentance and nâ—w Obedience Think you hear your Dying Parents charging you as Mr. Bolâ—â—â—â— did his Children that 〈◊〉 of you dare to meet them at the great Day without a Wedding Garment To this 〈◊〉 attend daily at a 〈◊〉 Ministry examine your Consciences by the Word of God pray much in Secret be Humble and Dâ—cible Disdain not to learn Catechisms watch against Occasions of Sin got into and improve Christian Society keep Conscience void of Offence towards God and Man Read Meditate on labour to and stand and practice Scripture Truths and Rules Study to do all the good you can and be useful in your Generation But I shall detain you no longre in the Porch I humbly desire you to Read and Study this ensuing Treatise which though short is yet Pithy Accurate and Sententious and will like a Clew lead thee through the Labyrinths and Meanders of the World Omit the reading of it and thou are a loser read it slightly and thou gainest no good contradict it at thy peril these Sheets will rise up in Judgment against thee another Day My earnest Prayer shall follow this and other Soul-helps that the God of all Grace would stamp his own Blessed Image on the Souls of the Rising Generation awake their Consciences inlighten their Minds renew their Natures subdue their Wills raise their Affections to Heavenly Objects that they may fill up our vacancies when our Heads are laid in the Silent Dust and may see better Ways and have better Heads to improve all Occurrences to better purpose than we that are now going off the Stage And thus good Reader I take leave wishing thee much content and Advantage in perusing this sweet Posy of Spiritual Flowers gathered out of the Scripture Garden As That Soul-Friend and Servant in Christ O. H. A PARENTS ADVICE to his CHILD How to Live well The Introduction Daughter MY hearts desire and prayer to
whole course of your Life And therefore let me now bespeak you in the words of a Holy Man now with the Lord. Let Holiness sit in your Lips and season all your Speech with Grace let it dwell in your Heart let it be your companion in your Closet let it Travel with you in your Journey let it lye down and rise up with you let it close your Eyes in the Evening and call you out of your Bed in the Morning 3. Make holiness the main design and end of your Life Then indeed you live the Life of Holiness when holiness which is the main design of Christianity is the great design of your Life when the very drift purport and intent of your Life is to live to God 4. Spend all the time of your Life that you can redeem from other occasions in the duties of holiness while others steal time from holy duties for their Worldly business and pleasures do you borrow all the time that you can from those things yea from your sleep for holy duties 5. Put forth your Vital Power your Life your Vigor and Strength in Exercises of Holiness Summon in all the powers of your soul let none be wanting Whatsoever your Heart findeth to do in the Work of Religion do it with all your might ply your Oars hoise up your Sails put forward with all your power and strength with might and main in your course toward Heaven By thus doing you will certainly live the Life of Holiness It may be you may meet with some scoffs amongst some Ishmaels for such a Holy Life bat yet let not this discourage or take you off from following the ways of holiness and uprightness What if a Lame Man should laugh at your upright walking would you therefore go lamely But for your better encouragement I shall propound to you one Motive Consider that unless you live the Life of holiness you can never live the Life of glory Vnless you be Regenerated and Born again you can never enter into the Kingdom of God John 3.3 It 's only the New Creature that must be admitted into the New Jerusalem You will never be a Flower in the Paradise of Heaven unless you first be Transplanted out of the common field of Nature into Christ's holy Garden Without Holiness no one shall ever see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 It 's this that fits the very Angels for Heaven and therefore without it how can you ever think to come there It 's not the Angelical Nature but their Holiness that makes them fit for Heaven and therefore it 's more excellent than the very Nature of the Angels considered in it self for it is the Image of God as a bright beam of the Divine Nature and so makes us capable of Heaven My Heart therefore yearns for you my Bowels rowl within me out of tender affection to your Soul lest you should come short of Holiness and thereby come short of Heaven Moral Virtues without Holiness will never be a Jacobs Ladder to reach Heaven how near soever they may come to it O what pity is it that an Ingenuous Nature should by some Moral accomplishments come near to Heaven and yet never come there that Rachel should dye when it was but a little way to come to Ephrath Be sure therefore to add the practice and power of Godliness as a full figure to your Cyphers For unless you do this I shall never have hope to see your Face in Heaven which is an undefiled Inheritance CHAP. IV. Of Living as in Gods Presence 1. LIve always as in the presence of God and as under his jealousie Thus did good Elizabeth in the Gospel of whom it is said That she was Righteous before God or in the Eyes of the Lord as the Vulgar Latin reads it Luke 1.6 It was good counsel of one of the Rabbins that we should always think that there was an Eye that saw all an Ear hearing all and an Hand writing all Often repeat the 1â—9 Psalm to your self and seriously consider that God is in all places and not only in the place where you are but within you in your very Breast and Bosom viewing all your thoughts and intentions not with a bare beholding but with a critical Eye and as a Judge to censure them to approve or Condemn them Whereupon his eye-lids are said to try the Children of Men Psal 11.4 You cannot shut the Heart so close but he hath a Key to unlock it he draws the Curtain and sees what is within he spies out what is Cabinetted and lock'd up in the most secret Corner and private Drawer there The bright and piercing Eye of Omniscience sees the very inward Conceptions before they come to the Birth the first eruptions and ebullitions of a Thought or Intention 2. If you do all things as believing that this Eye is upon you it will have a great influence on your Life What a holy trembling and quivering disposition would this create in you lest you should offend so Glorious an Eye What a Curb and Bridle would it be to restrain from all Sin even from secret Hypocrisie What a sharp Goad and Spur to all Uprightness The Masters Eye makes the Servant work Do but serve God faithfully while he sees you and it is enough I have read of one that committing a foul Sin said to himself No Eye sees me but presently there appear'd an Eye on the Wall with this Inscription But this Eye sees thee If you did always keep within you fresh apprehensions of God as present you would not admit a dishonourable thought of him in your Heart nor let an evil word have passage through the door of your Lips 3. Know for your encouragement that if you thus live as in Gods awful Presence you shall enjoy very much his gracious Presence here and his Glorious Presence hereafter to all Eternity CHAP. V. Of Living in Love to God and Christ 1. LIve in love to God and Jesus Christ do all things out of a principle of Love to God your Father and Jesus Christ the only Saviour God must be loved as your ultimate end the enjoyment of whom is the Souls everlasting blessedness and Christ as Mediator must be loved as the only way whereby we are reconciled to God and come to obtain that blessedness If you live not in the love of God how can you ever expect to live in his favour or that he will either accept you or your Services for it is this Love that perfumes all our actions and makes them a sweet Odour unto God Love to God is the very Life and Soul of all Natural Religion and Love to Christ is the Spirit and Vital principle that animates all Evangelical Duties which are required by the New Covenant and therefore no duty will be acceptible without it 2. Look well to it that your love to God and Christ be a singular superlative transcendent Love a Love that out-ballanceth all other Love whatsoever It must be the
cookt to make another Dish The Sacrament is but the Word visibly prepared to the Eye by an exuberance of mercy which was barely set forth to the Ear in Reading and Preaching that our Eye might affect our Heart and the whole Man might be fed with more apt and suitable congruity by such visible signs If you be new born you must not satisfie your self with that but you must further look to it that you grow up in Christ It is a shrowd sign that that person is not in Christ who is well contented with present grace without endeavouring after growth therein Be not like Luther's Changeling ever sucking never thriving Try then whether you grow in Holiness Do you perform duties with more heart and life than formerly Are you now not only for personal Holiness but Relation Holiness CHAP. XXVII Of Reading the Word REad every day some portion of Scripture either out of the Old or New Testament but especially out of the New Make use of both these Breasts for your spiritual nourishment prize both Law and Gospel highly value and study both The Child likes to lie sometimes at the one breast sometimes at the other but yet the Gospel is the better breast and Faith loves most to lie thereat it finds most sweetness in the Gospel Honey-comb it gets Honey in every little Cell of it tasts sweetness in every word or tittle of the Gospel 2. Read the Scripture understandingly see when you read that you understand the substance and sense the drift and scope of the H. Ghost in that Scripture which you read otherwise you read unprofitably I speak now of those places of Scripture which contain either some Article of Faith or matters of practical Godliness such as are incumbent upon Christians to learn to observe and practise But as for those places that contain meer speculative and controversial matter or hard questionable Points in Divinity an ordinary Christian need not be curious for a distinct understanding of them 3. When you begin to read any portion of Scripture pray unto God that he would enlighten you by his Spirit that you may understand it and read it with reverence as the Word of the most holy God and when any thing affects you pray to God that he would work that particular passage on your heart before you read any further 4. In reading take special notice of and mark those places of Scripture which you find most suitable and beneficial to you and read them over oftner than others Let your heart like a diligent Bee sit longest on those Flowers that will afford you most Honey and yet if you stay thereon as long as you can you shall never get out all the sweetness you may afterwards return to read again and find more and though the Soul have even laded her self she leaves them as the Bee her Flowers as whole as she found them A good serious Christian may perhaps have read a Chapter twenty times over before yet afterwards in the reading of it God may discover something to him a new so that he then gathers that thence which he never did before and tasts a new and fresh sweetness there 5. Read the Scriptures with this end and intent that you may know what God would have you to do and what he would have you forbear that the word of God may dwell in you richly in all Wisdom as the Apostle speaks Col. 3.16 i. e. that you may be so wise as know to apply it to know how to use such an Example and such a reproof It 's the Wisdom of a Tradesman to know how to use such a Tool such an Instrument or Engin and of a Christian to know how to use such a portion of Scripture to remember what Christ did in such a Temptation what Abraham David and Job did in such a Case Look into the Word of God as into an excellent Glass whereby to know how to dress your self Look into it that you may see all your spots and whatsoever is amiss and out of order that you may amend and redress the same yea that you may behold in this Glass the Glory of the Lord and be changed into the same Image as from Glory to Glory i. e. into the Beauty of Holiness which this Glass is proper for 2 Cor. 3.18 CHAP. XXVIII Of Hearing the Word Profitably VVHen the Word is Preached do not stay at home no not to read good Books They are strange Children that when the Nurse holds out the Breast will cry out for the Sucking-Bottle God is pleased to put forth his Spirit in the Preaching of the Word more effectually than in the reading it The same Milk is more Effectual and Nourishing when it is taken warm immediately from the Breast than when it hath been Milkt out and stood a while and when it can be had you make no use of the Bottle or Spoon Though a Printed Sermon be as good as that which is heard from the Ministers Mouth yet it hath not pleased God ordinarily to work Conversion by Printed Sermons at such times when the Word might be heard Preached Though Abana and Pharpar had as good water as Jordan yet it would not heal Naamans Leprosie That Honey tasts sweetest which is suckt immediately out of the Comb and much better than that which is eaten out of a Dish and that Word is sweeter to the Souls Pallat which drops immediately from the Ministers Mouth and came directly from his Heart thither than that which is read out of a Book That which comes warm from the Heart of the Preacher is most likely to go to the Heart of the Hearer That person which will not go to hear the word Preached but will rather stay at home to Read is like a sullen Child that will not eat his Meat unless he himself may cut it You may expect that God will give a Blessing to the endeavours of his Faithful Laborious Ministers We use to feed our Nurses well that our Children may fare the better 2. Mark the Doctrine Design and Drift of the Preacher all along that you may understand the Sermon and observe his Method that you may remember it For so it will be the more portable for the memory 3. Go not to hear the word with a common frame of Heart or with the same end that you go to hear another kind of Discourse But go that you may be made Holy otherwise you go not to the Word as a New-born Babe with an Appetite to the Milk of it You must come to these Golden Pipes Zach. 4.2 that they may empty Golden Oyl into you or they will do you no good Canaan it self that flows with Milk and Honey would be but a Desert a Hony-Comb without Honey meer Wax if Christ were not there Therefore go to the Word to find something of Christ there to get some influences from him and not barely to hear a Man speak go to hear not so much that you may know