see God, his power and glory, as of old, that David's heart longed for, and could not well live without. God threatens to bring a famine of hearing the word, Amos viii. 11. Mark, not a famine of reading the word, but of hearing the word. If the word be not preached, though we have the Bible to read at home, yet it is a famine, and so we ought to judge it. ■' The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision,' 1 Sam. iii. 1. The strongest Christians would find a want of this ordinance in time. We see in a town besieged, though it be well laid in with corn, yet when put to grind with private hand-mills, what straits they are soon put to. And so will the best grown saints, when they come to have no more from the word for their souls to live on than wliat they grind with their own private meditation and labour, — then they will miss the minister, and see it was mercy indeed to have one whose office it was to grind all the week for him. And if the stronger Christian cannot spare this office, because yet not perfect, what shift shall the weaker sort make, who need the minister to divide the word, as much as little children their nurse's help to mince their meat, and cut their bread for them ! To leave them to their own improving of the word, is to set a whole loaf among a company of little babes, and bid them help themselves: alas! they will sooner cut their fingers with the knife than fill their stomachs with the bread.
Section III. — Bless God for the efficacy of the word upon thy soul. Did ever its pouit prick thy heart, — its edge fetch blood of thy lusts ? Bless God for it ; you would do as much to a surgeon for lancing a sore, and severing a putrified part from thy body, though he put thee to exquisite torture in the doing of it. And I hope thouthinkest God hath done thee a greater kindness. Solomon tell us, — ' Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful,' Prov. xxvii. 6. The wounds that God thus gives are the faithful wounds of a friend ; and the kisses which sin gives come from an enemy. God's wounds cure, — sin's kisses kill. The Italians say, that ' pla)^, wine, and women, consume a man laughing.' It is true of all pleasurable sins ; and as sin kills the sinner laughing, so God saves poor souls weeping and bleeding under the wounds which his word gives them. Happy soul, who hast made such an exchange, to get out of the enchanting arms of thy lusts that would have kissed thee to death, and to ftiU into the hands of a faithful God, who means thee no more hurt by all the blood he draws from thee than the saving of thy soul. How far mightest thou have gone, and not met with such a friend ! There is not another sword like this in all the world, that can cure with cutting ; not another arm could use this sword, to have done thus with it, besides the Spirit of God. The axe does nothing till the hand of the workman lifts it up; may be no one else can use his tools as he himself can. None could do such feats with Scanderberg's sword as himself. None can pierce the conscience, wound the spirit, and hew down the lusts which there lie skulking in their fastnesses, but God himself; and this he doth not for every one that reads and hears it, which still heightens his mercy toward thee. There were many widows in Israel when God sent his prophet to her of Zarepta. And why to her? Was there never a drunkard, swearer, or unbeliever beside thee in the congregation at the same time that God anned his word to smite thee and graciously prick thy heart ? Oh cry out in admiration of this distinguished mercy. Lord, how is it thou wilt manifest thyself to me, and not unto the world!
CHAPTER XXI.
AN EXHORTATION TO THE STUDY OF THE WORD.
Secondly, Let this provoke you to the study of the word, that you may thereby have a familiar acquaintance with it. For this the Bereans obtained a mark of honour as more noble than others, because ' they searclied the Scriptures,' Acts xvii. 11. Shall God leave but one book to his church's care and stud}', and shall it not be read ? Shall we be told there is so rich a treasure laid up in this mine, and we continue so beggarly in our knowledge, rather than take a little pains by digging in it to come by it? The canker and rust of oiu- gold and silver, which is got with harder labour than is required here, will rise up in judgment against many, and say. You could drudge and trudge for us that are now turned to rust and dust, but coidd walk over the field of the word, where
AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 59]