The way to the highest honour a funeral sermon, on John XII, 26, preached…The way to the highest honour a funeral sermon, on John XII, 26, preach'd…

With the Notional, an Experimental Knowledge of Divine Truths, is absolutely necessary to a Minister to save himself, and most useful to save others.

With the Notional, an Experimental Knowledg of Divine Truths, is absolutely necessary to a Minister to save himself, and most useful to save others.

'Tis not a perfect System of ⟨p. 21⟩Divinity in the Head, not an universal knowledge of spiritual Things confined to the Brain, that has a saving Efficacy: 'Tis not composing a Sermon with exquisite Art, and the delivering of it like an Orator, that makes him accepted with God. For without a cordial Sense of Divine Truths, he only lends his Tongue in that holy Service; like a Reciter in a Scene, all he does is but external Appearance. God sees and requires the Heart: without it neither the Head nor the Tongue of a Minister, tho his Speculations are sublime, and his Words Drops of Gold, are of any value. And usually the Sermons of such are without profit to the Hearers. The sound of words only reaches the Ear, 'tis the Mind convinces the Mind, and the Heart persuades the Heart. He that is strongly convinced of the Truth of eternal Things, he will ⟨p. 22⟩speak of them with assurance, as an Eye witness, and in a lively manner: He that is burning in his own Breast, will inflame others; but if there be no Spark of Celestial Fire in the Minister's Brest, if he does not value the Consequence of Divine Truths, he speaks of them without a deep concernment; and a cold Preacher makes a careless Hearer: and the Sermon is lost in the Air between the Lips of the one and the Ears of the other.

'Tis not a perfect Systeme of ⟨p. 21⟩Divinity in the Head, not an universal knowledg of spiritual Things confined to the Brain, that has a saving Efficacy: 'Tis not composing a Sermon with exquisite Art, and the delivering of it like an Orator, that makes him accepted with God. For without a cordial Sense of Divine Truths, he only lends his Tongue in that holy Service; like a Reciter in a Scene, all he does is but external Appearance. God sees and requires the Heart: without it neither the Head nor the Tongue of a Minister, tho his Speculations are sublime, and his Words Drops of Gold, are of any value. And usually the Sermons of such are without profit to the Hearers. The sound of words only reaches the Ear, 'tis the Mind convinces the Mind, and the Heart perswades the Heart. He that is strongly convinc'd of the Truth of eternal Things, he will