the support the saints have found from this holy hook in their confinements. God hath graciously ordered it, that tlie most useful and necessary truths for the afHicted saints, hang on the lower boughs of this tree of life, within the reach of a poor Christian, who is but of an ordinary stature in knowledge. O, think, and think again of those sad times, when the bloody sword of persecutors was drawn to keep off the people of God from coming near this tree, and then you will better conceive your present privilege: yea, look back inito tliose times of popish ignorance, when this cellar of cordial waters was locked up in the ori- ginal tongues, and not one in a whole town to be found that had a key by whom poor sovds in their fainting fits and agonies of spirit could have it opened, so as to come by any of their sweet consolations to restore their swooning souls, and tlien you will surely bless God, who hath given you so free nn access unto them, when others cannot have access to you to communicate their help unto you.
Section II. — Bless God for the ministry of the word, which is the public school he opens to his people, that in it they may learn the use of this their weapon. It is a sad fruit that grows upon the little smattering knowledge that some have got from the word to putt" them up with a conceit of their own abilities, so as to despise the ministry of the word as a needless work. The Corinthians were sick of this disease, which the apostle labours to cure by a sharp reproof, — ' Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us,' 1 Cor. iv. 8. Paul, it seems, was nobody now, with these high proficients ; the time was, when Paul came to town he was a welcome man ; the sucking child was not more glad to see his mother come home, nor could cry more earnestly to be laid to the breast, than they to partake of his ministry ; but now, like the child when he hath had his fill, they bite the very breast they so greedily before took into their mouths, as if they should never want another meal : so high did pride carry them above all thoughts of needing his ministry more. And hath not the pride of many in our days carried them as far into a contempt of the ministry of the word, though their knowledge come far short of the Corinthians'? Well, takeheed of this sin ; Miriam's plague, yea, a worse, a spiritual scab and leprosy, apparently cleaves to those, as close as a girdle to the loins, who come to despise this ordinance, that they make all afraid to come near their tents. What prodigious errors are they left unto, whereby God brands them ! Yea, what sensual lusts hath the once forward profession of many among them been quite swallowed up with ! If once a man thinks he needs no longer go to the Spirit's school, he shall find that he takes the ready way to deprive himself of the Spirit's teaching at home : 'Quench not the Spirit, de- spise not prophesyings,' 1 Thess. v. 19, 20. They are coupled together; he that despiseth one, loseth both. If the scholar be too proud to learn of the usher, he is unworthy to be taught by the master. But I turn to you, humble souls, who yet sit at the feet of Jesus in your right minds, speak the truth, and lie not ; are you not well paid for your pains ? Dare you say of your waiting on the ministry of the word, what a wretch, though a learned one, Politianus by name, said of his reading the Scripture, that he never spent time to less purpose ? Do you count it among your lost time, and misplaced hours, that are bestowed on hearing the word ? I trow not. Thou keepest thy acquaintance with the word at home, if thou be a Christian, and eatest many a sweet in a bitter corner, while thou art secretly meditating thereon ; but does this content thee, or make thee think the word preached a superfluous meal ? I am sure David knew how to improve his solitary hours as well as another ; yet, in his banishment, O how he was pinched and hunger-bitten for want of the public ordinance I And surely we cannot think he forgot to carry his Bible with him into the wilderness, loving the word so dearly as he did : ' My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is,' Psalm Ixiii. 1, Why David, what is the reason thou complainest thus ? Ilast thou not the woi'd to read in secret? Canst thou not let down thy bucket, and by meditation draw what thou wilt out of the well of the word ? Why then dost thou say thou art in a thirsty land, where no water is ? He means, therefore, compara- tively ; the sweetest refreshings he enjoyed in his private converse with the word were not comparable to what he had met in public. And can you blame a sick child for desiring to sit with his burden at his father's table, though he is not forgot in his chamber where he is a prisoner? It was the sanctuary, there to
590 ^'^^ THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.