A Body of Practical Divinity

9. & ult. If you would have the Word work effectually to your Salvation, make it Familiar to you, discourse of the Word you have heard when you come home. Psal. 119.172. My Tongue shall speak of thy Word. That may be one reason why some People get no more good by what they hear, because they never speak one to another of what they have heard: As if Sermons were such Secrets, that they must not be spoken of again; or as if it were a Shame to speak of matters of Salvation. Mal. 3.16. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and a Book of Remembrance was written.

9. & ult. If you would have the VVord work effectually to your Salvation, make it Familiar to you, discourse of the VVord you have heard when you come home. Psal. 119.172. My Tongue shall speak of thy Word. That may be one reason why some People get no more good by what they hear, because they never speak one to another of what they have heard: As if Sermons were such Secrets, that they must not be spoken of again; or as if it were a Shame to speak of matters of Salvation. Mal. 3.16. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and a Book of Remembrance was written.

Use. Caution. Take heed, as you love your Souls, that the Word become not ineffectual to you. There are some to whom the Word preached is ineffectual. (1.) Such as Censure the Word; in stead of judging themselves, judge the Word. (2.) Such as live in contradiction to the Word, Isa. 30.8. (3.) Such as are more hardened by the Word, Zech. 7.11. They made their Heart as an Adamant. And when Men harden their Hearts wilfully, God hardens them judicially.