-08 Chapter 8. Of Hearing the Word.

2-08 Chapter 8. Of Hearing the Word.

1. From these virtues of Religion towards God — Faith, Hope, and Charity — there arises a double act of Religion which respects that spiritual communion which is exercised between God and us: Hearing the word, and Prayer [chap. 9].
2. The reason or foundation for this distribution is in this: that we affect God with religious worship when we yield him due honour, whether by receiving what he himself propounds to us, or by offering what may be received by him according to his perfection; for in both respects, we do what is immediately and directly honorable to God.
3. The first act of Religion, therefore, is about those things which are communicated to us from God: and the other is about those things which are yielded to God from us.
4. HEARING THE WORD is a religious receiving of the will of God.
5. Therefore hearing is here taken for any receiving of the words of God, whether they are communicated to us by preaching, or by reading, or any other way, because God tends to work in a singular manner, and by his own institution, in the preaching and hearing of the Word.
6. Therefore this word ought not to be taken so strictly that it either chiefly, or necessarily always includes the outward sense of hearing: but it may denote any perceiving of the will of God, and chiefly sets forth an inward receiving and subjection.
7. RECEIVING the Word consists of two parts: Attention of mind, and Intention of will.
8. ATTENTION is an applying of the understanding to perceive the revealed will of God. Acts 16:14, The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she might attend to the things which were spoken by Paul. It is often called in the Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, seeking the will of God, or seeking God himself, to display that great desire with which we would be carried to know God’s Will, as to finding out something which we can by no means do without. Isaiah 58:2, Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways; as a Nation which does righteousness and does not forsake the judgment of their God, they inquire of me the ordinances of Justice; they delight in approaching God.
9. In this attention is needed that providence by which we may discern what God wills. Romans 12:2. That you may prove what is that good, pleasing, and perfect Will of God: once it is perceived, we must not deliberate further — whether it is good, or to be observed or not — for the will of God itself is the last bound of all religious inquiry. Galatians 1:15-16, When it pleased God... to reveal his Son in me... I did not... consult with flesh and blood.
10. INTENTION is applying our will to a religious observance of the will of God that is already perceived. Psalms 119:106, I have sworn and will perform it, that I will keep your righteous judgment.
11. The purpose of the intention ought to be so strong and firm, that without exception we are ready to observe whatever God commands. Jeremiah 42:5-6, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to all things for which the Lord your God shall send you to us: whether it is good, or whether it is evil, ...we will obey the voice of the Lord our God.
12. In respect to this intention, the Law of God itself is said to be in the heart of a believer, Psalms 40:8; Psalms 119:11; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10.867
13. This hearing, to be right, ought to be from religious observance: bringing SUBJECTION of the inward acts and inclinations of the mind. Romans 6:17, From the heart you obeyed that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
14. But so that it may be truly religious, it is requisite First, that it arise from Faith, whereby we believe what God reveals to us to be the word of truth; and we are accordingly affected toward it. Hebrews 4:2, The word being heard did not profit them, not being mingled with Faith in those who heard it. Luke 24:32, Did our hearts not burn in us while he spoke to us?
15. By this Faith we cling to the word, Psalms 119:31. And the word itself clings to, and is ingrafted in us, unto salvation. James 1:21, That ingrafted word.868
16. Secondly the same hearing must flow from that hope whereby we embrace what God has promised as the word of life, also expecting life by it. Deuteronomy 32:47, It is your life. John 5:39, You look in them to find eternal life.
17. By this hope it comes to pass that the faithful bring forth fruit with patience, Luke 8:15.
18. In like manner, it must have love joined with it, whereby we cling to the same word, or to God revealing himself to us in that word, as simply good. Psalms 119:97, How I love your Law. 2 Thessalonians 2:10, They did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
19. In respect to this love, the Word of God dwells plentifully in the faithful, Colossians 3:16; so as to also be transformed into the form and fashion of it, Romans 6:17.869
20. Such a hearing of the Word of God is the true and proper worship of God: 1. Because it immediately and directly brings spiritual honour to God; for the act of hearing is most properly directed to receiving the Will of God. Yet because in the manner of receiving it, we subject our consciences to God, we thereby honour his power and Divine truth, and in acknowledging these, his religious worship is exercised. 2. Because it contains a direct and immediate exercise of Faith, Hope, and Love, in which the worship of God most essentially consists.
21. Hence no word or sentence of men ought to be mingled with the word of God, and propounded in the same way, lest by this means we in some way worship men instead of God.
22. Most formally opposed to this hearing, is that PRIDE whereby one is so affected by870 his own excellency, that he will not be subject to the Will of God. For although this pride is contrary to humility of religion, and obedience, or obedience in general, yet it seems to be most properly opposite to these in this act of religion. This is because a proud man, as he is such, is so far from subjecting himself to the will of another, as to a Law, that he would have his own will instead of a Law. Jeremiah 13:15, Hear and give ear: do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken. Jeremiah 5:5, They have broken the yoke; they have burst the bonds.
23. The proper act of this pride, as it were, is that contempt whereby one dismisses871 either God, or the Will of God and the observance of it. 2 Samuel 12:9, Why have you despised the Word of the Lord, in doing what is evil in his Eyes?
24. Hence pride is said to be the cause of all other sins for a double reason: 1. Because all other sins in a certain way refer to that excellency which is seen in pride, as to an end.872 2. Because pride casts away from itself in contempt, the government of the word — by which power alone sin is avoided.
25. Hence there is found in every sin some respect to pride, but especially in those sins which are committed with deliberate counsel.
26. Hence, also opposed to the hearing of the Word is all consultation with the world, flesh, or wisdom of the flesh, in those things which pertain to religion, Romans 8:7; Galatians 1:16.873
27. For as by pride men altogether refuse to subject themselves to the will of God, so by these consultations with those things which are not after God, men seek for themselves, as it were, other gods to whom they may be subject.
28. The most accursed opposition to hearing the word of God is in consulting with the Devils, Isaiah 8:19; Deuteronomy 18:10-14,874 where a certain religious Faith and Hope that are due to God alone, are transferred either explicitly or implicitly to the enemies of God.
29. Hence Faith875 tends chiefly to be required in such consultations by those who are the masters of such [devilish] Arts.
30. By virtue of this Faith, there is a certain covenant entered into with the Devil, with some religion — if not openly and expressively, at least secretly and impliedly.
31. But although one does not have a direct intention to ask counsel from the Devil, yet if he does that which either of its own nature, or by the use and application which it has, infers calling on the name of the Devil to receive his help or counsel, he is made a partaker of the same sin.
32. Therefore all arts for knowing secrets, brought in by instinct 876 of the Devil, are in this respect to be condemned.
33. Therefore, all divination which is grounded neither upon the certain revelation of God, nor upon the course of nature ordained by God in created things, is to be condemned.
34. All application of things or words, either to predictions, or to those operations for which they have no disposition — either by their nature or by God’s Ordinance — is to be condemned.
35. Because the help of the Devil is sought by such courses of action, they contain in themselves a certain invocation of the Devil; and so they are opposed to calling upon God. And as certain revelation is expected, or as a submission of mind is used to receive and execute his commands, so these acts are opposed to hearing the word of God.
36. Therefore this communion with the Devil is not only unlawful because it is joined with fraud and seducing, but also because, of its own nature, it is contrary to true religion.
37. For having no civil communion or fellowship with the Devil, we cannot have religious communion with him, no, not as some of old had with the good Angels who are ministering spirits for our good, sent by God for that purpose.
38. Therefore, whatever we do with the Devil besides those things which pertain to resisting him as the enemy of our souls, violates true religion; and it is certainly a perverse religion.
39. If he sometimes seems subject to the command of men by virtue of certain enchantments, it is only a show of subjection, so that by that means the Devil may more easily rule over men. Therefore he does not hinder, but only colours877 that religious subjection which men perform to him in that communion.
40. All those who desire to cure diseases in others by using words, figures, or similar things of insufficient virtue, or who allow such things in themselves or others for that end, in part join with such sins.
41. Sympathies, and Antipathies,878 and specific virtues which are found in some things, are hereby differenced from such enchantments, in that the common experience of all men acknowledges that there is some Faith required in those things, but none is required in these.
42. A strong imagination perhaps concurs in many to make these means effectual; but that also often arises from a certain religious Faith: nor can it effect anything in parents for their children, or in men for Cattle, without a certain diabolical operation accompanying it.
43. Those who are most given to hearing the word, as they least of all care for such acts, so they receive the least fruit by them.