Tomorrow is the day many Christians will gather together in the assembly of the saint's for public worship. The puritans had counsel and advise on everything in the Christian life, and reading and receiveing the word, whether in our private dwellings or the places we gather together in public assemblies is no exceptions.

We need to get back this all consuming love for Christ and his Word, and set it in front of our eyes continuously again, we have much still to learn from the puritans, perhaps more than any other past generation of writers, these men can help us turn back the tide if we turn back t otheir Christ-centred teachings and seek the old paths.

Richard Greenham in a treatise gave 8 directions on how to Read the Scriptures which basically boiled down to this:

Do it with diligence, like a man searching for treasure
Read the scriptures with wisdom
Come to the Scriptures with prayer
Meditate on what you read
Talk with each other in the communion of the saints of the Scriptures–heavenly conversation
Come to it in faith
Apply what you read and practice it in our life–Live out the Scriptures
Be read with prayer

Thomas Watson on how to Listen to the Word taught this:

Come with a holy appetite, a teachable heart, sit under the word attentively, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith. Retain it in our memories, pray over it, practice it, speak to others about it.

Henry Smith as of the other puritans had a deep love of the Scriptures and esteemed it higher than all things else in this world, as he displays when he wrote:

"We should set the word of God always before us like a rule, and belive nothing but that which it teacheth, love nothing but that which it prescribeth; hate nothing but that which it forbiddeth; Do nothing but that which it commandeth."

The Puritans were not only Bible centred, they were Christ centred. Thomas Adams married the two together in this quote:

Christ is the sum of the whole Bible; prophesied, typified, exhibited, demonstrated. To be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being as it were but the swaddling bands of the child Jesus."–Thomas Adams

Issac Ambrose wrote of Christ and the Scriptures:

When you think of Christ, think of him as the very substance, marrow, soul and scope of all the Scriptures.

Rutherford writing on the loveliness of Christ wrote thus:

I dare say that angels' pens, angel's tongues, nay, as many worlds of angels as there are drops of water in all the seas and fountains, and rivers of the earth cannot paint Him out to you. I think His sweetness has swelled upon me to the greatness of two heavens. O for a soul as wide as the utmost circle of the highest heaven to contain His love! And yet I could hold but little of it. O what a sight, to be up in heaven, in that fair orchard of the New Paradise, and to see, and smell, and touch, and kiss that fair field-flower, that evergreen tree of life! His bare shadow would be enough for me; a sight of Him would be the guarantee of heaven to me."If there were ten thousand thousand millions of worlds, and as many heavens, full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants, and to fill us all. Christ is a well of life; but who knows how deep it is to the bottom? Put the beauty of ten thousand thousand worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden, in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all loveliness, all sweetness in one. O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths.

T. Goodwin was so in love with Christ, that he said this:

Heaven would be hell to be without Christ.

They also had directions for the pastor and preacher too. Puritan Thomas Taylor wrote this:

The word of God must be delivered in such a manner that the majesty and authority of it shall be preserved. The ambassadors of Christ must speak His message even as He himself would utter it. A flattering ministry is an enemy to this authority; for when a minister must sing placebos and sweet songs, it is impossible for him not to betray the truth. To withstand this authority, or to weaken it, is a fearful sin, whether in high or low men; and the Lord will not allow his messengers to be cut off. Hearers must (a) pray for their teachers, that they may deliver the Word with authority, with boldness, and with open mouth; (b) not mistake this authority in ministers as anger or bitterness, and much less madness; and (c) not refuse to yield subjection to this authority, nor be angry when it bears down upon some practice which they are loath to part with; for it is just with God to put out the light of those who refuse the light offered.

And if we go to our place of worship tomorrow, and hear and receive the Word in a right manner, a profitable manner, to feat our souls on the teachings of Christ and the Scriptures we may be the blessed of those who hear the word and keep it, as Christopher Love wrote in a sermon on Luke 11:28

But you will say, "If they only are blessed who hear the Word of God and keep it, who practice what they hear, then where is a blessed man to be found? For where is that man alive who can keep, who can live answerably to what he hears? I hear many a sin reproved which I cannot forbear. I hear many a duty pressed which I cannot perform. I hear many a grace persuaded unto which I cannot act. Now how can any man be blessed, seeing he cannot keep what he hears?"

ANSWER. If you indeed lived under a covenant of works, you could never be a blessed man because you can never keep what you hear according to that exactness which a covenant of works requires, for that commands a man to keep the whole law, to keep it perfectly, and to keep it personally. But for your comfort know that you are under a covenant of grace, which does not require a perfect, but a sincere obedience to the law of God; which accepts the will for the deed. Oh, remember that you are not under a covenant of works, but a covenant of grace, which accepts what Christ has done and suffered for you (if you are a believer) as if it were done in your own person.

Though, indeed, that is true which Christ said to the young man, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17), yet you must know that Christ spoke this unto him because He knew him to be of a pharisaic temper, and that he thought to be saved by his good works. But if Christ should say thus unto any of us, "You shall go to heaven if you keep every command, and you shall never go to heaven if you break any one command," the Lord have mercy on us! We should then all perish to eternity. But Christ said, "Believe and live." Now promise (not work) is the object of faith (Romans 4:16). Therefore Ambrose was wont to say, "Let us hope for pardon as of faith, not of debt."

In a word, make conscience to keep what you hear; bewail your inability to fulfill the law of God; do what you can, and mourn that you can do no better; and then God will say, "Though you cannot keep the law completely, yet My Son has kept it for you. I accept His obedience as your obedience, and His righteousness as your righteousness." Oh, what grace and mercy is here! How may this cheer up your hearts in the midst of all discouragements that lie upon you! Again, for your comfort, know that if in sincerity of heart you endeavor to keep what you hear, in divine acceptance it is all the same as if you had perfectly kept all that you hear. If it is the desire and labor of your soul to obey God's will and observe His commands, in divine acceptance it is looked upon as if it were actually done by you.

It is worth your noticing what is said in Scripture: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promise, offered up his only begotten son" (Hebrews 11:17). Abraham did not actually do what is said here that he did, but because Abraham did it in the purpose of his heart, because the desire and resolution of his soul was to obey God's command, therefore the Scripture accounts it as done! Oh, take this for your comfort, you who are a child of Abraham, who walk in the steps and faith of Abraham, the very desires and purposes of your heart are looked upon as if they were really and actually done. If you would pray better, hear better, and practice more than you do, in divine account this is looked upon as if you had already done it.

In the covenant of grace, the righteousness of Christ, and the satisfaction made by Christ, are held forth and tendered to the justice of God. The Surety is punished and the debtor is spared. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:3, 5). And, the Apostle says, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1-2). So here mercy may be found to help and relieve a poor sinner who is lost in the covenant of works. In this covenant of grace, God accepts the will for the deed. He does not stand so strictly upon it as to cast the sinner out of favor for every transgression, but "as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Psalm 103:13). That is, He pities those who are faithful with God in covenant, those who strive to do the will of the Lord and flee to His grace for pardon and acceptance, those who repent of their transgressions and promise and perform upright obedience. For in this covenant there is place for repentance and mercy for the penitent.

And as we leave our places of worship tomorrow, these words of Thomas Watson from the Christian soldier, are worth bearing in our minds:

It may be the last time that God will ever speak to us in His word; it may be the last sermon that ever we shall hear; and we may go from the place of hearing, to the place of judging. Did people think thus when they come into the house of God; perhaps this will be the last time that God will counsel us about our souls, the last time that ever we shall see our minister's face, with what devotion would they come! how would their affections be all on fire in hearing? We give great attention to the last speeches of friends. A parent's dying words are received as oracles. Oh let all this provoke us to diligence in hearing; let us think this may be the last time that Aaron's bell shall sound in our ears and before another day, we shall be in another world.

I cannot cite all the direct titles as some of these things I heard via audio where the Titles are not always given.